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Arkansas River Rafting

When planning your summer camping trip in Colorado, there seems to be an absolutely overwhelming number of outdoor attractions and wilderness areas. When considering a high alpine adventure, one of the best locations for camping, fishing, hiking and rafting is the Collegiate Peaks. The Collegiate Peaks are a collection of twenty peaks making up a part of the Sawatch Mountain Range in Colorado. Here is all about the Collegiate Peaks in Buena Vista for this year’s summer trip.

The Collegiate Peaks are absolutely stunning section of the Sawatch Range located in Buena Vista, CO and stretches close to Leadville, CO. The snow melt off of the collegiate peaks feed several different creeks and rivers, most notably being the Arkansas River, Gunnison River and Roaring Fork River, which serve as tributaries on the Colorado and Mississippi rivers. These rivers offer several sections of world class whitewater, including a section of the Arkansas River located in Buena Vista with the Browns Canyon section running through a National Monument. For the avid hikers there are a plethora of trails and peaks to climb, including nine 14ers and eleven other peaks over the height of 13,000ft. One of the most popular trails is the Black Cloud Trail which summits Mt. Elbert, which is the tallest peak in Colorado at 14,439ft high, and is about nine and half miles in length. For those looking into camping and fishing the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Area stretches an amazing 167,584 acres through three different counties and holds about 40 miles of serpentining continental divide.

collegiate range

Collegiate Range

The Collegiate Peaks Wilderness area was once the home of the Ute indigenous people whose territory stretched all through the American west. The Collegiate Peaks boarder other awesome wilderness and recreation areas that offer great camping destinations, as well as the Buffalo Peaks, Maroon Bells-Snowmass, Hunter-Fryingpan and Mount Massive. The Collegiate Peaks offer tons of other activities that include horseback riding, ziplining, fishing and hot springs. When planning to camp in Colorado over the summer, plan to have evening thunderstorms and high UV sunshine as you are high in altitude and closer to the sun.