Echo Lake – Campers and hikers headed for the high country this weekend intent on celebrating Independence Day with sunny skies and campfire s’mores.
They were met by rain and a statewide fire ban.
“Well, most people take it pretty well,” said Dan Harbeck, a ranger with Arapaho National Forest who said he tries to ease the sting of the fire ban with a little humor:
“I just tell ’em to sit around their flashlights.”
But the people who make a living off flatlanders’ long-weekend trips said business was holding steady.
U.S. Forest Service regional office spokeswoman Janelle Smith said Front Range campgrounds had not seen any sign of a fall-off this year. In fact, campgrounds in forests near Denver such as Roosevelt, Arapaho, Pike and San Isabel had been booked for months.
“It was a little slow on Saturday, but it has been steady since then,” said Aaron Reid, a bartender at the Echo Lake Lodge, where travelers come for everything from coffee or beer to the pan-fried trout. “We’ve seen them all – hikers, bikers, motorcycles and cars.”
They come all right, but not all are willing to curtail what they see as a Fourth of July rite of passage.
“There are a lot of fires up there,” said Forest Service law enforcement officer Tom Rhodes, gesturing up Colorado 103.
He said the scenic byway that runs from Idaho Springs to the top of Mount Evans is aglow at night with camping scofflaws.
“I had to tell five people to put out fires last night – five different parties,” he said. “Part of the problem is that with all this rain, people think there is no danger of fires, but that is not true.”
Some campers, such as Tara and Travis Beaver, headed to public campgrounds with contained fire pits.
“If you can’t have a campfire, then what’s the point of camping?” Tara Beaver said as her fire smoldered Monday.
The Beavers said managers of the Echo Lake Campground had been vigilant about monitoring their campers’ fires to ensure safety. But it was another element of nature that spoiled their trip.
“We came up here on Friday, and it has rained every day,” she said. “We brought all these shorts and T-shirts, and we have not worn any of them.”
The Beavers elected to celebrate the Fourth of July a little more modestly at their home in Centennial.
“We’ll do a lot of laundry,” Tara Beaver said. “Then sit somewhere in the Home Depot parking lot and watch the fireworks.”
Elsewhere, grills installed for public use but covered in orange plastic and marked with “No Fires” signs disappointed some bratwurst-toting tourists.
“We usually do go to the store and get all kinds of stuff” for the grill, said Cheryl Groner from Russellville, Mo.
Others chose to take a more positive look at the orange covered grills:
“Oh,” Texan Shelly Scaylon joked, “they kept the grill dry for us!”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-820-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
