Taylor and Salli’s journal recollections day-by-day-ish of our camping trip travelling from Georgia to Colorado.

September 18, 2025 – September 21st, 2025

We left Kenosha Pass East Campground and headed down 285. At the Dollar General in Fairplay, we discovered that South Park had a lot to offer. After picking up some necessities, we headed toward a local store, The Salt Licking Goat, then to an old western town in South Park. The open air museum was very thorough with so much to see, including some mining operations, and every other building a normal town would have had.

It was getting late in the day, so we decided to find a spot for the night. After driving around and filling our water tank at Alma, we headed up to Hoosier Pass and ended up parking at Alma State Wildlife Area for the night. This questionable site was chosen because we had originally aimed ourselves towards the Kite Lake area, but discovered it was closed. (We still got a few great pictures on the way back from Kite Lake)

Needing a gallon of milk led us to a dollar store in the town of Fairplay. After grabbing a few groceries, Taylor was looking around the various online maps we use to see where our next stop might be. He then discovered that we’d accidentally stumbled upon the real South Park! While there’s plenty of debate on the validity of that claim, we declared it good enough and headed towards the tourist attractions. We posed with our heads in the cartoon sign at “The Salt Licking Goat” bought a couple tee shirts, then opted to check out the historic South Park City, where an open air museum takes you on a journey back in time with an entire reconstructed mining town from the gold rush and silver boom of the late 1800’s. At $12 a person, it was well worth the stop.

After spending most of the day in Fairplay, we went north to Alma where we filled up our fresh water tank at the city hall with about $8 worth of quarters, we headed toward Kite Lake in search of dispersed camping. The road up there was beautiful and we were warned properly that it was in fact closed, so we turned around a couple miles before we got there, took a few epic pictures, and went in search of somewhere else to stay for the night. We ended up staying the night in a dispersed site at Alma State Wildlife area by a lovely little reservoir.

Not knowing if we were really in a designated campsite or not, we got up really early and headed out. The site was a good one, in the middle of some hunting wetlands. After checking OnX, we decided to head to Peerless Mine Road (road 18), where we scoped out some dispersed sites, as well as Fourmile Campground, where we met some guys from Texas who were there hiking 14ers. Soon after, we found ourselves set up along the dusty road that would become our home for the next several days. 

We unloaded the bikes and rode several miles up the road to a huge mountain near Mount Sherman (14er). The views were incredible, and it was our highest elevation since the beginning of our trip. Our bikes did very well, and after the first real test, we immediately appreciated fuel injection.

We headed out early the next morning because A: we realized that we weren’t sure if we were actually in a lovely free campsite or actually in a picnic parking area, and B: We’ve discovered that the early bird does actually get the worm, and if we wanted to actually have our pick at a good choice dispersed campsite, we’d have to get there before the weekenders arrived. Peerless Mine road was where we wound up, where we figured we would be near a handful of great riding trails. After driving through both Horseshoe and Fourmile campgrounds, we settled on a roadside dispersed site between the two. Having arrived there pretty early in the day, unloading the bikes and going for an afternoon ride seemed like a great idea. Mount Sherman at the end of Four Mile Creek road turned out to be one of the best viewpoints we’d seen yet. Jaw dropping doesn’t even begin to describe what we got to witness at just over 12,000 feet from a dirt overlook on our bikes.

A bit tired and needing some rest, we chilled at the camper most of the day. I walked up the road and took a lot of pictures at a nearby trailhead. Our supper smelled great cooking all day (roast) and the air was getting much cooler at night. We settled in at night due to the unknown animal scat that surrounded the campsite. (I’m sure there were bears nearby)

Saturday was a great day to sleep in. I decided to be a potato and lounge around and knock a few chapters out of a book, while Tay enjoyed walking around the campsite taking in the mountain foliage and beautiful creek we’d parked beside. (I joined him in walking eventually, grabbing a few insane shots on my camera at a nearby trailhead.) Drawing plenty of solar power and staying pretty well topped off, I decided we should definitely cook something tasty since we’d been living off the frozen chili and taco meat that I’d pre-cooked for the trip. I put a roast with carrots and potatoes in our mini slow cooker and we salivated every time we went inside the camper from the smells until it was time to eat. Man, it was the best food ever, probably..

Today was a big riding day, and the first big test for Salli. We took a spur off Peerless Mine Rd that was fairly rocky and not a lot of room for error. After reaching the furthest point, the views were unparalleled to what we had seen so far. We stayed on the trail to the top of a large mountain, and did some backtracking because of the steepness coming down. In the end we made it back, but Salli had reached her point. It was time to rest some more and get cozy with our leftovers. (leftovers happen often)

Sunday we decided to check out a spur of the trail off Peerless Mine road where we’d gone that last Friday. Pretty immediately upon taking the spur, we realized it definitely wasn’t a “green” trail at all, like it’s noted as. Both large boulders sticking out of hard packed dirt and loose boulders of all sizes became the general theme of the ride. Eventually, we made it to an incredible spot where one side of the road dropped off into essentially a cliff. The views were incredible, but I just held on to my bars for dear life, throttled out, and tried not to think about my potential impending death at the bottom of this mountain if I didn’t hone in my sub-par skills and focus on keeping my bike on the rock garden ahead of me. Look, I made it. We made it.. mmmmostly to the top where Peerless Mountain awaited us. We turned around at the “almost made it to the top” point where we took another trail that seemed to loop back around to the starting point.

After going a little way down, Tay’s spidey senses must’ve kicked in to go ahead of me to scope out if I could handle what awaited. He came back with a big ol nope and made me turn around again to go back the way we came. I didn’t want to tell him at that point, that I’d started to grow pretty tired and was experiencing a bit of altitude sickness since we were around 13,000 feet, so I drank up several gulps of water, put on my big girl pants, and rode it out nervously all the way back to the camper. It was awesome, and I had to lay down and do a good wall stare after that.

Tay also somehow ripped off his tag on the way back, which apparently had been hanging by a thread. I stopped to pick it up for him since he didn’t notice, then he had to do a bit of zip tie rigging since a replacement would have to come from Georgia, and ain’t nobody got time for that.