I’ve been a lot of places in Colorado, but I’d never visited Grand Mesa until this past weekend. Holy crap is it beautiful up there! Lush forests, rolling terrain, and tons of lakes.

We also rented/borrowed a Sprinter camper van for the weekend, as we really feel this is the way to go for our next adventure vehicle. The truck camper has been a great proof of concept, but we’re looking for something a bit easier to pack up and go, since we tend to recreate in different spots than where we camp when visiting an area. It’d also be awesome if our adventure vehicle didn’t depend on one of our daily drivers.

A van would be killer!

This is the rig we borrowed/rented for the weekend. We feel we’d want to have the interior laid out a little differently than this one to better suit our needs, but overall it was great. Our bikes fit inside, it was fun to drive and super capable, and had enough space for us and The Cartel™. Also, it’s red!

Cooking breakfast in the van while it rained outside. Calabacitas and eggs… oh yeah!

After breakfast we hiked around camp with The Cartel™ for a bit, beauty was everywhere we looked. This raging creek was 100 yards from the campsite, and fed a serene lake that we could see from the van.

But also, there were cows. A ton of cows. Just… hanging out, being cows.

This lass decided the sausage our campsite mates decided to chuck in the fire pit was way too delicious to pass up. Not quite cannibalism, but still.

On Saturday we rode straight from camp to the County Line loop. It was six miles uphill to the trailhead, then a 7-ish mile loop, then back. This was my first ride on dirt since breaking my ribs 3-1/2 weeks ago and it was awesome! Felt good to be back on the bike. And the trail itself was super fun: lots of twisty turns, great dirt, fun rocks, and very single singletrack.

Obligatory shot of the bike leaning against something.

This is the lake next to our campsite… super pretty. The views blew me away all weekend.

My fam.

Our ride on day two (West Bench) took us across the top of the Powderhorn ski area, was super pretty, and fun to boot. Shaina relaxing in an Adirondack chair at the top of the ski area. Another good day on the bike!

Just enough rocks to keep it sassy.

And enough swoopy singletrack to keep it classy.

Overall, a great weekend camping, making food, partying a bit, and riding. Turns out this particular van would soon(ish) be for sale, so on the drive home Shaina and I talked about making an offer on the red van, and what we would be comfortable with spending. When I returned the van to it’s owner, we talked some turkey and agreed on a price and some terms.

Stay tuned, this fine little red lady is going to be ours in the near future!