2 of 12

Write now Article Tools

It was in the summer of 1999 when my family decided to take a camping trip to Colorado. I was a typical 15 year old high school student, which mean family vacations were lame in my eyes.

We left Kansas City after school one Friday and made our way through the very flat, very uninteresting state of Kansas. I slept the majority of the drive out to the great land of Colorado. For the first night of our stay, Dad rented a hotel room since it was dark and too hard to see to pitch the tent.

The next day, we woke up early and left the hotel to enjoy the scenery. We spent a long day hiking through the mountains, marveling over the work of years and years - millennia even - to carve out the intricate patterns and formations of the canyons. As we grew tired and hungry, we decided to find a camp site and set up camp for the night.

We found a site at the foothills of Pike's Peak. There were pine trees everywhere. The woman from the Pine-Sol commercial would have considered it her personal heaven. The sky had been relatively clear all day with only a fluffy cloud or two. However, just as we began unpacking the car, the sky darkened and the wind picked up.

The air was cool and damp at first as the wind blew through the tall pines. Within minutes, it was no longer tiny droplets, but a huge downpour of big fat raindrops. Dad and I got the tent up as quickly as we could, though not before we were both soaked through to the bone. During this time, my step-mom and younger sister sat in the car, laughing hysterically at Dad and I running around in the mud, trying to figure out how to pitch a tent.

That night, as the rain stopped, we admired our tenacity as we collected branches with which to build a fire and to use as skewers for our hot dogs and marshmallows. We sang cheesy campfire songs and told ghost stories. We found shapes and figures in the stars. For a moment, I forgot that I was supposed to be an indifferent teenager!

From this one night, I learned a few very important lessons. First, it always rains in Colorado when you least expect it, so if you plan on camping, put up that tent at home in your backyard a time or two so you get some practice for when speed counts. Second, never use pine branches to roast hot dogs or marshmallows with. The sap is basically inedible, yet you cannot get it off of the branch or the food no matter how hard you try. Lastly, even when you are a teenager, camping in the mountains of Colorado is one of the best vacation ideas this country has to offer.

Learn more about this author, Lillian Jensen.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Short stories: Camping?
We want to hear your view. Write now!