Dear Isaac and Maia,

We hit the road for another wild adventure. This one to Vega State Park – just a smidge further than our first two trips. This is my favorite wildflower trip of the year. Why? I adore the wild columbines. They look like fairies fluttering through the forest. I call my dogs the Vega Vagabonds!

I put this trip off twice because of flood warnings. What’s funny is the area had one of its heaviest storms the night we arrived but no cell service, so I found out when we got home. Well, sort of. The rain kept us mostly tent-bound the first evening and the thunder was a little close for comfort. Ignorance is bliss – and I have my Garmin. The rain on the tent and distant thunder of the late evening made for great sleeping weather.

The following morning, the sun came out. It was a perfect day for our annual wildflower walk on the Vega State Park Trail. This trail is lush and forested. It is about a mile from the trailhead just across from the Pioneer campground to the trail end (near the Lake). It is the slowest mile I walk all year because my camera is out and my dogs are sniffing. It is a great dog-friendly trail because of the shade from the dense flora.

This year, the columbines where a little beat-up from all the monsoons, but beautiful just the same. There is Cow Parsnip (or maybe it is Giant Hogweed) everywhere – and it is pretty tall. There are dozens of kinds of flowers along the path. I didn’t even photograph all of them. The columbines are more thick on the second half of the trail. There are also 3 wooden bridges over the creek on the second half of the trail – and it can be a little muddy in that section. We walk back on the road, because it takes us 2 hours for the one mile hike through the flowers and by now, I am starving.

Photos from the Vega Trail

Trip into Colbran

We headed into town and got a burger and ice cream at the Colbran Cafe. It’s a nice little town and is the closest town to the park – it takes 20 minutes or so to get there on the mountain roads. It is a dog-friendly place where I can hitch the girls to a bench in the shade with some water. Since there is no internet at the State Park, I took the opportunity to check on the outside world while waiting on food. The community was beginning to gear up for their 4th of July rodeo in a couple of days. Good news – no black eye this year and I cannot figure out how I tripped on that sidewalk last year.

The afternoon was spent reading at the campsite. I am re-reading the Geography of Bliss. It is an older look at national happiness and I think it is an amusing and uplifting review of positive psychology. I vagely consider interviewing people on our camping trips to assess their happiness. I wonder if campgrounds have different levels of happiness? Colorado ranks 23rd most happy? Must be the Denver traffic. NOTE: I read more camping than any other time!

After dinner, we took the North Trail that comes out next to our campsite. We didn’t go to far, but enjoyed more wildflowers. Even the grasses were blooming from all the rain. And, Koko became a pollinator and needed to be wiped down when we returned to camp.

The next morning, we headed home. It is an amazing drive up over the Grand Mesa and back through Delta County on the Grand Mesa Historic Byway. You can see for miles and miles. At the top of the Mesa is another dog-friendly lunch stop, Mesa Lakes Lodge. I had a chicken sandwich and a huge margarita that I didn’t drink much of due to driving. I just wanted the taste of a marg, I guess. We hiked a little before we continued the journey home.

Vega Lake State Park is a great, dog-friendly spot for campers and wildflower enthusiasts. The best time of year for the columbines is late June, I think. We were a little late this year due to the storms.