Antero Reservoir, Badger Basin, and Fairplay Colorado

     If you drive into the Mountains of Colorado, past the high-walled valleys where Idaho Springs stretches along the wandering valley floors, wandering up the ravines where the Colorado gold rush began, up beyond Ski-lodge wealth of towns like Breckenridge, and into the hills beyond, you will find yourself on a high plateau, ringed with distant mountains.  If you drive the gently moving roads against that distant view, you pass into the town of Fairplay.  This almost incredibly western name is fitted to a town which bears it gracefully.  If you only drive through the center of town, western buildings of wooden siding fill many places beside the road, though when you stop for gas on the other side, you never feel as if you have left your own century, because there is every modern thing you would expect, save perhaps the feeling of mountain isolation that still holds sway where the terrain forces us to remember that once travel was more difficult and time consuming.

    When you have left Fairplay behind, regretting that you never got to look in that neat old library, the road goes on, turning and straightening to run along a great expanse of fields and pastures of the plateau.  Near the road that would take you to the smaller town of Hartsel, you may pass Bager Basin, where a bison herd shelters in doorless barns near the road.

Badger Basin Wildlife Area bison herd

If you decide to stop at the second driveway into Badger basin, your way will be impeded quickly by a beautiful running stream.  If you are not one to be bothered by wading in a bison crossing, and are decent at avoiding buffalo chips, crossing is relatively easy once you strip your shoes off.  I personally have done it with a child strapped to my chest.

  

Once you have crossed the stream, and climbed up the far bank, scarred as it is with bison tracks, you find a hill above you calling to be climbed.  If you can find the right way through the fence, and reach the top of the hill, then a long distance lies before you, tracked by a pair of tire paths leading off toward the dark hills.

You may even see a bison over the hill, and go on hiking in great delight, knowing you are walking the same plain, and then as you shift your view, you may realize you are actually on a hill above the entire herd, and decide if they start moving in your direction at all the most prudent plan is to take your child and zip to the other side of one of those fences.

Beyond Badger Basin, down the road, you will come at last to the drive to the Antero Reservoir.  Known, I believe, largely for its fishing, it is a wide lake, over one side lies mountains, and to the other, lower green hills.  In case you want to climb those hills, you may be prevented by some fencing.  Just a warning.

The air is thin, and the weather quick to change.  When we arrived, rain was in the air, but before long a hot sun was beating down through the thin atmosphere, and the baby soon needing slathering in coconut oil to prevent sunburn in place of a heavy jacket.

Beside the Antero reservoir is an official building of some sort, for boats or something I remember poorly, and next to that stands a rather pleasant picnic pavilion, and a campground with one of the finest views that can be had.  It was, after the rising cost of motels, and the shocking price even of many campgrounds delightfully economical.  Meaning free.  And it was populated, as the evening wore on, with more and more campers and RVs.  Once you have spent a night beside the reservoir, and in its weather, in a cheap tent, you will know why this is the preferred form of shelter.

In case you have further curiosity, decent pit toilets form the bathrooms.  There were fire rings, and picnic tables, so everything a respectable campground typically has.  I scavenged someone's old branches left behind for wood, as we had none with us, and there was little else to burn.  Perhaps some of those buffalo chips would have been helpful.

If looking for a beautiful, free place for a night in the mountains, this is a pleasant one.  But don't tent camp unless you're ready for an adventure.