July 20, 2026

Today we went camping on the Uncompahgre....kind of.  It was a beautiful day as we set up camp on the Payne Mesa Road.  We camped in the same spot we'd camped at in 2017 when our air mattress went flat soon after going to bed.  We couldn't sleep so sat up by the campfire.  But, that didn't work due to mosquitoes so we got in the truck and finished the night.  After supper and setting up on this trip we headed up the road to Columbine and then wandered down into Tabeguache.  We saw a couple deer.  It was raining and lots of lightning over by Naturita.  On the way back to camp we noticed the sky getting dark.  Lately it's been unusual as the storms have been coming from the east and not the usual southwest.  As we got to camp the wind was blowing and it was raining lightly.  We went to bed and couldn't sleep at all due to the wind and now lightning.  With large aspen trees looming over head there were thoughts that this wasn't safe.  It seemed it was going to last all night.  So, instead of sitting in the 4Runner all night, we just headed home.  On the way the lightning behind us was nonstop over where our camp was.  We were sure we'd hear of new forest fires the next morning.  We got to bed at home around 11:30.  The next morning we headed back up - hoping we'd have a camp left...not stolen or destroyed by the storm.  Surprisingly, it was all in tact and it appeared it had only rained lightly.  And, a couple new fires were started by the storm, but were quickly extinguished.  It was quite the adventure and we were thankful the Lord had protected us before we got out of there.

Abajo Mtns in the background.  The Babylon Fire burned over 100,000 acres there.