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What do you do when you just moved to Denver, have minimal survival gear, but want to head to the mountains? You go on a dispersed camping trip!
Dispersed Camping Overview
When we moved to Colorado, we simply couldn’t wait to get out and camp in the mountains. Most camp sites were fully booked, so we decided to try dispersed camping. Dispersed camping can be done several different ways. Essentially, dispersed camping is a free, first come first serve designating camping spots. Typically, these camping spots can be found along marked roads (you can tell because they will typically have a fire pit.) The trip featured in this post is in Twin Lakes, Colorado. We camped along Country Rd 24.
Twin Lakes is about a two-hour drive from Denver. If this is your first time camping or disperse camping, Twin Lakes was a perfect distance for our one night trial run of figuring out what’s top on our priority list to add to our camping supplies! We camped in the fall; the leaves have already started to turn golden yellow and fiery red and made every second of the drive without radio worth it. Once you’re in the area, there’s plenty of trails and hikes to take in the view. AllTrails is a great app and tool to choose a trail best for you. Keep in mind, if you’re knew to Colorado the elevation may make hiking tough and I’d recommend a shorter hike.
Since this was our first time dispersed camping in Colorado, we had the intention of sleeping in the Jeep rather than tent camping. We felt this was a little safer considering our lack of supplies at the time. We searched online and knew there were dispersed camping spots in Twin Lakes. We left Denver really early to get to Twin Lakes and secure a spot. Once we found a spot, the rest was easy. We explored the area before it was time to set up camp.
Packing List
Shelter
The majority of the time we sleep in our jeep or Subaru. We love the jeep air mattress, but we are hoping to have this off-the-car tent for our group camping trips! If you’d like to pack light, sleeping bags will be easy to pack and keep you warm. Don’t forget pillows! If you’re my husband,
Food
For the longest time, we only had a water jug, kettle, s’mores sticks, bowls, and utensils. Over time, we did invest in a camp grill, along with a few other bits specific to camping. Colorado has a store called Sierra, which is a TJ Max for outdoor gear. This is an idea if you are trying to buy camping gear on a budget.
Kettle – a kettle is perfect for warming up water for hot chocolate, boiling water for our pasta, and putting in our water bottles
Water tank – we never felt guilty for drinking more water, rinsing our hands, brushing our teeth, making hot cocoa, or anything with bringing a big tank of water. This also meant plenty of water to safely put out the camp fire
S’mores sticks – ours retract which make it easier for packing and storing and we could roast Hot Dogs and marshmallows over the fire
Portable grill – We went years without a grill, but now that we have it we don’t have to rely on a steady fire to make dinner. this has made a huge difference.
Safety & Misc.
Chairs – especially with using the Jeep as our sleeping ground, it was so nice to have a place to sit by the fire and relax. Not to mention after sundown, how many stars we were able to sit and see.
Fire tray – we used this as our table when we didn’t have the fire, and then we used it to set the kettle over the fire
Lantern – enough said
Wood / log starter, matches – log starter was clutch until we are better skilled at this craft
Cards and games – we also played a ton of campfire games like: ?at my campsite” ?name game” etc.
Biodegradable wipes – enough said
Trash bag – we almost forgot this haha
Speaker – acoustic music in the mountains can’t be beat
First aid kit – On this trip I was adding wood to the fire and got a splinter and couldn’t get it out right away, a first aid kit is perfect for events like this!
Camera – working on perfecting my craft at my zoom lens to capture the night sky
Clothes – obviously we packed clothes but some things I’d bring again even if for only night: wool socks, change of regular socks, leggings, t-shirt and layers
Camp shoes – my Birkenstocks have been with me for years and will continue to come with me wherever I go. Good for in & out of sleeping quarters, bathroom breaks, etc.
Eno / hammock – our favorite part of camping is setting up our double eno hammock and curling up with a book or meditating in the outdoors.
Tips & Tricks
- Use the last set of kettle water to pour into your thermos to make coffee before bed. You’ll have warm coffee when you wake up or if it got cold, add ice and you have some ?cold brew!”
- We have a plastic container that we keep packed with all of our supplies for camping in our garage. We always refill it after a camping trip with things we used, like new garbage bag and paper towels. We also clean all of the utensils we used and pack them back in the container.
- If you’re sleeping in your car with it locked and you wake up to use the bathroom, DO NOT manually unlock the door. Following a manual unlock, the car alarm will go off for as long as you take to scramble to look for your keys in the middle of the night. This is probably common information but was not for us
- Bring more firewood than you think you’d need. You can use the leftover towards your next trip and won’t be worried about running out.
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