Cheese Log

Once I get the cell phone photo discussion out of the way, this post is going to be much more about our camping trip/lifestyle than dog photography – you’ve been warned. 😝

My photography task this week was to take an image with a cell phone, and simply put, that’s just not my jam. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’m certainly not opposed to phone photography, in fact, I use my phone on the daily to capture our everyday lives, but for me there is a HUGE difference between the “snapshots” I take on my phone versus the art I create using my mirrorless camera. And that’s not even taking into account my struggle with framing using a cell phone – you do NOT want me to be responsible for taking any selfies, LOL. ANYWAY, I always do my homework, and this was no exception, so here we go.

I will never ask anyone to participate in a photo session that I’m not 100% committed to, so once again I turned to my in-house cheeseball Queso. Just after we broke camp during our recent trip, I asked Queso to hop up onto a fallen log so I could take a few shots before we hit the road. And the up-for-anything fellow that he is, he happily complied. Here’s the result.

“Cheese Log”

I find the automatic processing of iPhone photos a bit “much”, so I did re-process this photo to be more in line with my taste. 🙂

The behind the scenes (BTS) look of how I created it:

Okay, now for the camping stuff!! Over Memorial Day weekend, we drove about five hours southwest of our home in Parker to Creede, Colorado and secured a spot right on the Rio Grande River. (And by “secured our spot” I mean we reserved it back in November of 2023. 😲 Camping has turned into a competitive sport here in Colorado, and you often need to book six months ahead of time.) And by camping, I mean glamping. We certainly don’t long for any creature comforts when we’re on the road – were totally spoiled. 🤣 This was our spot, and our friends (and their dogs!) had the spot right next to us.

It actually took us a little longer to get down to Creede than we had anticipated, and we arrived just in time for Happy Hour. We quickly set up camp, grabbed our table, chairs, and drinks and set up close to the river. Of course, Queso is always with us on these adventures, and he has learned to LOVE camp happy hours. Our camp rule is that if we come across a broken cracker he gets it. 🐶😋

The next morning was a slow roll for us – riverside coffee while Queso soaked up the environment on his elevated camp bed. The Colorado mug was designed by my uber talented photographer friend Anna Hylton – she photographed all the elements (fall leaves, snow, sun, & Colorado blue sky) and combined them into our state’s flag. She gifted the mug to me, and now it’s a tradition to photograph it at all of our campsites. ☕😍

Once we were suitably caffeinated, we drove a bit down the road to South Clear Creek Falls, and hiked the short distance to the beautiful waterfall.

A short little video of it, so you can hear the power:

Then it was back into Creede for another hike, Up and Over. It seemed weather was rolling in, so we decided to turn around at the Pinnacles. #itwaswindy 💨🤣

Then it was down into town for some yummy refreshments at dog friendly Kip’s. And by dog friendly, I’m thinking it actually may have been a requirement to have a dog if you wanted to sit outside on the patio. 🤣 Every table had at least one dog! Queso let us know that he, too, enjoys queso.

We made dinner in the RV, and before you think we’re super fancy… I am not really a fan of cooking (seriously, WHY do we have to eat every day?!), so we take meal kits on the road with us. And we modify as we can for camping – ie, we grilled the fish. This one is from our current provider, Sunbasket: salmon and arugula-barley salad with apple and dried cherries. It was tasty!

The next morning we rented a Jeep from Cottonwood Cove Guest Ranch, for a little light four-wheeling - nothing too serious, just little bumps. 🙂 The reason we chose to rent from Cottonwood was their site didn’t explicitly prohibit dogs in the Jeeps. I called to confirm dogs were allowed, and the gal I spoke with explained yes, they WERE allowed, but it really depended on the type of dog – big furry ones are discouraged due to the cleaning requirements afterwards. She then asked, “What kind of dog do you have?” A big furry one!! 🤣 I assured her we would bring our seat cover and pay for the additional cleaning if required. (Such a bummer that most outfits don’t want to rent to people with dogs, as we want Queso to join the fun!)

After we thoroughly explored Bachelor Loop and Rat Creek, we stopped in at the Last Chance Mine, a (primarily) silver mine from “back in the day”.

Amazingly, the tour we took allowed dogs! (Jack, the mine owner offered, “Where you are welcome, dogs are welcome.”) So Queso went into the mine with us. 🥰

The museum boasts the largest collection of kerosene lamps.

Then it was through some puddles in the Jeep:

Back at the campsite, Queso kept plucking sticks from a tree near the river. It was flowing too rapidly for real swimming, so he was a good boy and stuck to the tiny eddy by our site.

And after getting soggy, dogs always love to shake and roll!

And we wrapped up the day with a yappy hour.

The next morning before packing up, I snapped some photos of the hummingbirds visiting our feeder. I’ll admit, it’s pretty impressive that my cell phone managed this one. (Make sure to note the Queso fur – nothing is safe from his magical fibers of love!)

This is the behind the scenes of the previous image, complete with pj’s and junky camp food, LOL.

Then we began the five hour drive home – super weekend!

Note: all of the content in this post was taken on my iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Ginger Wick Photography is an award winning dog photographer specializing in creating beautiful custom artwork of dogs & their people. Based in Parker, CO serving the Denver area.