Campout: Bear Lake Campground, Yampa, CO

Whew, what a camp out! We just got back from the Routt National Forest yesterday evening. Kim, myself, and our friends from Las Vegas spent three days enjoying the great weather out there.

We all left our house at 8:30 am after packing the truck, getting ice, firewood, and a quick breakfast burrito. We made it on to the road for real at 9 am. Our destination wasn’t too far away, only an hour up CO HWY 131 to Yampa, CO, a neat little mountain town with all kinds of old buildings like the you would see in old westerns. They have a gas station, general store, and a diner, that’s pretty much it.

From Yampa, we took County Road 7 about 7 miles until it turns into Forest Service Road 900 for 6 more miles. The campground we were headed to was Bear Lake Campground. On the drive to the CG we saw a bunch of vacant pay sites along the road that looked pretty great too. Some of them even had vault toilets in close proximity.

We came to Bear Lake and our camp destination. The lake had a well-equipped day use area with toilets, picnic tables, potable water, and fire rings. In the campground, there were 43 sites, bear boxes in most of the sites, potable water, trash service and vault toilets. Both the day use and campground were well kept and very family friendly. Our site (39) felt private. Our only complaint was that it was pretty buggy during the daytime hours.

Guide’s Note: We arrived around 10:30 am on Thursday morning and there were only a few sites available. This summer has been pretty tough to find sites even mid-week. If you are planning to travel to Bear Lake Campground, remember, it’s a popular place with people that live around Steamboat Springs, so make sure to arrive early. We saw campsites getting claimed by 7 am…

Our camp setup took about an hour. By then, hunger had set in and we prepared lunch. We had Cobb Salads, they were delicious.

A nice way to start the camp out. Something fresh with lots of base ingredients that you can incorporate into later menu items if you have leftovers.

After lunch we relaxed for a while and played a couple rounds of washers while our guests relaxed, took in the views, and were eaten alive by mosquitoes…

Once the scent of bug spray and sore arms from swatting got tiresome, we were ready to start a fire and try to knock down the mosquitoes in camp. For dinner we had one of Kim’s favorites: Pork Eggroll Lo Mein and I was excited to try and make a Strawberry Dump Cake for dessert. They both turned out great! Let’s just say, tummies were full and the smiles were endless.

The next morning for breakfast we had an Egg Scramble with bacon, potatoes, onions, peppers, spinach, and cheese. I used a couple of the salad leftovers to spice things up a bit.

Then we went on an amazing hike up to a narrow land bridge called “The Devil’s Causeway” it was breathtaking! Literally, that look down, took my breath away. Yikes! (insert pic) The hike was about 6 miles round trip and gained 1550 feet of elevation over 3 miles. I would call it a moderate hike with 4 sections of steep trail. The last bit up to the causeway was definitely the toughest but was totally worth it for the view.

By the time we returned to camp it was time to start a fire and get to work on dinner. We had Ground Beef Philly Hoagies and roasted red potatoes that evening. Of course, we also had our obligatory smores for dessert. Needless to say, we were all full and happy for the rest of the evening.

Breakfast on Saturday was a first run of a new recipe “Stuffed Croissants”.

They were delicious! We filled them with sausage, egg, peppers, onions, and topped them off with provolone cheese. I was trying out the idea of using the Dutch oven on the burner and how to get it to behave like an oven more than a skillet. The sandwiches worked out pretty well. Everyone enjoyed them, but my preference would have been cheddar instead of provolone.

Then we broke camp and headed out to the lake for an afternoon of paddle board fun. We checked out the inlet to Bear Lake where a cascade feeds in, saw an abundance of fish, and got some sun! Afterwards, we packed up and headed home, satisfied with another great camping trip in the books.