Camping in Wet Mountain Valley

Hey, all.
I'm in Savannah at a conference, but got this note from biz editor Joanna Bean who took her girls on a weekend trip. Here's the scoop on Wet Mountain Valley:

We headed to the Wet Mountain Valley this past weekend to bid farewell to summer. Stands of green aspen still outnumber gold, so the fall colors look like they'll hold for a few weeks at least. As expected, the warm day gave way to a chilly night - great for s'mores and Uno card games by firelight!

One of our favorite National Forest Service campgrounds, Alvarado, remains open until Oct. 9 (the water is turned off, and there's no campground host). Alvarado reopened this year after renovations - though we were delighted to see that about half of the campground still has old-school sites with well-worn wood tables and lower-profile fire pits. The renovated sites have tent sites, new fire pits and some new-fangled camp poles, which my kids promptly used to hang their books bags from.

Alvarado campground serves as a trailhead for the Rainbow Trail, which traverses the valley (and heads north and south from there). To get to Alvarado, head south from Westcliffe on state highway 69 for about 3 miles, where there's a sign for the campground, which is about 7 miles west on county road 140.

Dena again - will try to post a photo or two between workshops. No gators - yet.