After the birth of our daughter Grace and then son Ezra, we found ourselves backpacking and camping less. The yurt gave us a chance to try our hand at quasi-camping, where we hauled gear in backpacks but did not have to worry about a tent or water. And, we were not alone in this notion: the guests of the other yurt were a young Phoenix couple and their 16-month-old daughter, Sophie.
We also enjoyed the distinct advantage of a woodstove-heated space -- a bonus to the yurt that also helps extend the camping season well into the fall. In fact, the yurts are a year-round offering and a popular overnight retreat for cross-country skiers and snowshoeing enthusiasts.
Like our nights of tent camping, the yurt served primarily as our base of operations to explore. The Nordic Center yurt experience is enhanced by the more than 30 miles of trails. While the trails are there primarily for the cross-country ski season, they also offer hiking opportunities.
Following a dinner that included veggie burgers and roasted corn, my sister-in-law showed off her fire-starting skills by getting a nice blaze going in the fire pit. We basked in the campfire as the dusk went blue and the stars began to show. The woodsmoke, emerging night and mountain air helped us reconnect with all the things we loved about camping.
As we prepared for bed, I found myself fixated on one interesting feature of the yurt: A perfect circle of a skylight about two feet in diameter at the top of the ceiling. During the day, this brings light into the room, along with two windows that can be unclipped and rolled up.
At night, the dome creates a small window into the cosmos.
For the time of our visit, I could see Orion's Belt in the circle. Johnson notes that, during the winter, the Big Dipper is visible in circle, and people who stay overnight can watch it rotate through the night.
In many ways, it reminded me of a crude version of a James Turrell Skyspace, where the minimalist conceptual artist reveals a circle of sky in the center of a room so people can watch and interpret the sky's color and form. To this effect, I watched how dawn faded out the stars and brought different shades of blue in the circle.
The morning brought a robust hike up the Abineau Trail and across a trail known as the Snowslide. While most of the forest remained in shadow, Kendrick Peak to the west was bathed in morning light.
As I pulled the crisp air into my lungs and studied the cool and warm tones of morning and the emerging light, I realized that we needed to refill our summer season with family camping and look to the yurts to help extend the season into the fall and beyond.
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