This term is used for vehicle based camping anywhere in the National Forest OUTSIDE of a designated campground. It is generally allowed anywhere except within 100 feet of a lake, trail, or stream, or where posted as closed. It is especially appealing to people who enjoy the solitude and experience of camping away from developed campgrounds and other campers. No toilet facilities, garbage services, treated water, or fire grates are provided. Typically, dispersed camping is not allowed in the vicinity of campgrounds, picnic areas, or trailheads. However, even here occupying a campsite is limited to 14 days.
Much of our future budget relies upon finding free areas such as dispersed campsites to spend the night. Our first night of dispersed camping was last week where we found a grated area just off Highway 9 near the Green Mountain Reservoir. The area wasn't the most remote, but got us away from the crowds and snowplows that sometimes disturb our nights at Copper.
The area is part of the Arapaho National Forest and provides abundant opportunities for hiking and viewing wildlife. While just spending one night in the area, we didn't hike much, but did see some wildlife.
A couple of Moose under the trees:
A family of deer coming down the mountain for a quick drink of water:
Beautiful birds (Steller's Jay) in the trees outside our vehicle:
We've also been able to see Red Fox and Snowshoe Hares in and around Copper, but didn't have the camera handy.
As we ski out the remainder of the season at Copper, we look forward to the travels ahead where we can do more dispersed camping in remote areas and enjoy the wildlife and natural landscape.
4 comments:
Looks amazing! Cody is jealous of all the moose and deer you are getting to see. :-)
Just wait until he sees pictures of the bears and whales in Alaska! Glad you're doing well and sharing the blog with Cody!
Bears and Whales would be cool. What's the ETA for Alaska?
One of the nice things about our schedule is that we don't really have one... Summer in Alaska is a vague term and we're currently heading up the central part of California with only a limited idea of where we'll be in the next day or two or how long we'll stay there. We imaging that we'll be in Alaska sometime in mid-June through the end of August...
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