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We decided that since spring break was coming up a trip was in order. We decided on a southeast Colorado expedition. As you may have guessed, our family likes to take the road less traveled. This is most definitly the least traveled part of Colorado. There are several neat places down there, and we love miles of wide open prairie lands with nothing but a dirt track! We decided that a four night, five day stay would give us a chance to air out our camping gear from the winter!
After looking over the map we decided to check out The Comanche National Grasslands. From looking on google earth there appeared to be miles of dirt track to explore and some nice canyons. We decided to stay at Vogel Canyon. To our surprise, this turned out to be a sweet little spot. The entire week we saw a total of three people. We basically had the entire parking area to ourselves. 
There were places to set up tents. The facility had a toilet and covered picnic table. Other than that you were on your own. So we found a spot and set up our Cabela's Outfitter Series® XWT Xtreme Weather Tent. This is one of the nicest tents out there. Look for a write up soon on this tent. Couple of warmed up cans of chili and we were ready to hit the sack!
After a good nights rest, and a bacon/egg/potato breakfast, we hit a couple of dirt roads. 
There was absolutely noboday around which made for a nice day. There are several ruins around and literally hundreds of miles of dirt roads. We spent a week around there and didn't come close to seeing everything. There were plenty of canyons to explore, petroglyphs, and dinosour tracks. We heard rumors of several ruins in the area and left camp anxious to see what we could find on our own. We started hitting all the two track roads that we could find. We spent a couple hours running from one road to the next with no obvious end. Within our first 5 miles from basecamp, we found our first set of ruins. Looked to be an old cabin of some sort.
The kids jumped out and started looking around. Seemed like a nice place to hang out for a bit. So we started searching for arrowheads and got fairly lucky. Since this was our first time taking our kids to ancient ruins we decided to use this first one as our school room. We showed the kids that touching is out. Everything needed to be left where it was found and that exploring was with our eyes only. No hands! Reminded me of our antique store talk!HA! They did well and really seemed to enjoy the experience.
The Pinzgauer was running well and we decided to get up a little higher for lunch. We saw a trail leading up to the top of the canyon and decided to give it a looksee. As you can tell from the pic to the left, the views for lunch were very pleasant. The skies were clear and thier was a nice, light breeze. Made for a perfect spot for lunch. After lunch we headed back down the canyon towards the main road. 
I don't know what it is about pics, but this one to the right just doesn't do it justice. The road "seemed" pretty steep and was all shale. Once down we found a shady spot and decided to get out for a small hike. The kids were a little antsy. Its amazing how many arrowheads are around. Im very surprised to find so much evidence of indians just laying out there.
After a couple of hours of just wondering we decided to head back. As kids do, we had to pull over for a "tire check". After taking the pic to the left we decided our new family trip theme song. Dwight Yoakams "Thousand Miles from Nowhere". I think it fits. There was lots of wildlife believe it or not. These pics make it look barren, but the wildlife was abundant. Lots of Antelope, Hawks, Horny Toads, and Coyotes. This is just what the doctor ordered after a long cold winter!
Day two was pretty uneventful. Since it was Sunday, we just took it easy. We did hike down Vogel Canyon to check out the petroglyphs. There were several cool ones. I know they are hard to see in the pics but if you look close youll see them. The canyon itself wasn't very deep, but it's surprising to look around, at flat grasslands, then run into a canyon out of nowhere. The hike was not long at all. Took about three miles to complete the loop. The views were nice and wildlife was again abundant. The creek was full of water and had several salamanders running around. 
If you do go here and check it out, go to the left. If your looking at the map take the left trail and look closely for an old trail to the left. Its only used by the locals but takes you to an old cabin. In my excitement I forgot to take a pic, but was a cool little place to check out. Remember to watch out for the cactus! I pulled my share out of my legs.
