We take a nice drive up Clear Creek Canyon to I-70, then south on 9 from Frisco to Fairplay. South of Fairplay we pull off on Forest Road 431, and stop to watch this storm unfold on the high plains of the South Platte headwaters to the east. There’s a National Forest campground here, Buffalo Creek, but we choose to drive a little further and camp for free. We find a quiet spot under a tree, which provides some shade from the full moon for easier sleeping.
2 responses to “Camp near Buffalo Springs”
It looks like you were on the Weston Pass road to Leadville from 285. I travelled that in the fall, and it is really spectacular. Beaver ponds one after another along this creek with huge, well-spaced out free camping sites, and aspen patches highlighted with blue spruce and wonderfully sculptured large rock formations. I would love to camp a few days—hardly any traffic. This is only a few miles east toward Fairplay from the Leadville highway, 8 miles south of Leadville. The only downer—my camera memory card was full and the battery was low, so I got no pics at all!!
That sounds right – maybe we’ll have to do the whole drive next time…