Camping, Friendsgiving style.

‘Tis the season…for camping with friends.  The days are shorter and cooler, but that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate a national holiday outside. No not that holiday, the other national holiday: friendsgiving. Kelty combined two of our favorite things on a recent trip: camping and friendsgiving. It’s not too late to pack up the tents, sleeping bags, chairs, and pumpkin pie and head out for a late season adventure. Check out Kelty’s version of camping, Friendsgiving style.

With the alpine wilderness surrounding our office home in Boulder, CO already seeing sub-freezing temperatures at night & snow in late Oct., sitting around in the cold didn’t sound fun, Enter desert camping season. A 4-hour drive to Rabbit Valley near Fruita, CO was worth getting greased up with sunscreen again for a day of biking and hiking.

Sunsets in CO can be pretty epic. This particular one during happy hour was worthy of everyone grabbing their beer and talking a stroll as the sky changed colors to a mix of orange and turquoise over the desert horizon.

As the sun went down, the table mason jar lights came on and set the mood for a glowing friendsgiving evening. Since roasting a turkey proves to be a little more challenging outside in the desert, Kelty opted for a simpler and easier to to prepare menu of pulled pork, mac & cheese, Mexican corn casserole, salad and of course, pumpkin pie-whip cream optional.

Kelty campfire time: just the usual round of playing music, toasting marshmallows, dodging campfire smoke and playing “Never Have I Ever.” The only other thing we can say is what happens in Rabbit Valley, stays in Rabbit Valley.

Are you going to eat that s’more?

As the stars come out and the campfire dies, sleep is inevitable, but not before one last glance up to soak in the Milky Way.

Photos: Tom Milam @twm_design