Leadville CO area questions

welove2drive wrote:
Wow! Thanks to all of you for so much great information! I forgot to mention that we will be in CO probably Monday - Thursday. I am really concerned about altitude sickness. Maybe we should look for a lower elevation to explore for two days then move to a higher elevation.
Is the Garden of the Gods (6,400') low enough? Any suggestions? We like National and State parks.
Since we will be there during the week do you think that we would have any problem finding a site for two days in a couple of locations?

First, I wouldn't worry too much about altitude sickness, esp. if you stay a little lower than Leadville. Affects only a small percentage of the visitors here anyway. (In the last three days, I met several hundred people visiting CO from lower elevations like Atlanta, Nashville, NYC, Florida, and Dallas. Even though we were well above 10,000', no one in any of the groups had altitude sickness.) If you want to avoid higher elevations, follow my recommendation and head to Salida. At just over 7000' it's not much higher than Garden of the Gods. And once you get a campsite, just park it for those few days and drive out from there, rather than waste the time moving. As far as finding a place midweek, you might have luck with those sites that are first come, first served. If history is a guide, I think all of the reserved sites will be booked weeks before your trip. About half the sites at O'Haver NFS CG are FCFS. All of Cottonwood Lake CG is FCFS. There are some FCFS sites at White Star. Perry Peak just above Twin Lakes is all FCFS IIRC. Generally sites are available there midweek.