Camp Chief Ouray

A Colorado summer is defined less by its peak heat than by its range. Days are bright and dry under a strong high-altitude sun, and then the temperature falls hard after dark, more so the higher a camp sits, so a warm afternoon and a cold night belong to the same day. Afternoons often build thunderstorms over the peaks, which is why high-country programs move early and get off exposed ground before they arrive, and hail or even snow can turn up at altitude in the warm months. Lakes and rivers are snowmelt-cold, so time in the water is short and bracing. The figures here are drawn from a Front Range station; camps up in the mountains, especially overnight, run cooler than these, particularly once the sun is down.

Most families arrive through Denver International Airport (DEN), the state's main gateway on the northern Front Range and one of the country's busiest domestic hubs. The southern Front Range has its own option in Colorado Springs Airport (COS), and camp country far to the west and southwest is better reached through the regional airports at Durango-La Plata County (DRO) for the Four Corners, or Montrose (MTJ) for the Western Slope. From Denver, the main interstate does the real climbing west into the high country, another runs the length of the Front Range, and smaller highways peel off toward Boulder, Estes Park, and the mountain parks.

How far you drive after that depends entirely on the camp. Mountain sleepaway camps sit a good way up, where the interstate gives way to two-lane mountain road and then, often, to gravel or a forest-service track at the very end. For the high-country expeditions, the drivable road simply runs out at a trailhead and contact goes quiet beyond it. Front Range day camps are the opposite, already where families live, so getting there is a local morning drive. Any shuttle or pickup arrangement is something to confirm with the individual camp rather than assume.