Students may begin arriving at Camp and moving in on Monday, May 19th.  All students are required to be present in Camp by 5:00 p.m. Sunday, May 25th.

Early arriving students:  Cabin space and utilities (electricity, showers, and toilets) will be available.  However, students should budget and plan to provide their own food.  Ice chests will be available for storage of perishable foods.  Food and other personal supplies can be obtained from Colorado Springs about 30 minutes away.  Students are responsible for cleaning their own living space.  Students who arrive before May 25th will be put to work on Camp preparations in exchange for housing & facilities.

Travel by air:  Pick-ups at the Colorado Springs airport can be arranged.  Communicate your travel plans to Dr. Horn as soon as you know them.  Upon arriving at the Colorado Springs airport, you may call Camp at the telephone number listed above.  But, the only way to guarantee we’ll know to pick you up at the airport is to communicate your plans to Dr. Horn in advance.  If a number of students arrive at the airport at different times, we’ll arrange for only one or two pick-ups, so arrivals earlier in the day may have to wait at the airport a couple of hours.  Plan your itinerary to arrive at the Colorado Springs airport before noon, May 25th and to leave Colorado Springs after noon, July 6th.  Persons who travel into and out of Denver airport must arrange for their own transportation between Denver and Colorado Springs.

Directions to Colorado Springs from Baton Rouge (the fastest route): Drive to Shreveport and go west on I-20 to Dallas/Fort Worth, TX.  The goal after Fort Worth is to get onto U.S Highway 287 for Amarillo.  One way is to take I-635 north and then west around Dallas.  Some people going to Camp have found this route to be relatively free of problems.  However, the east-west stretch of I-635 north of downtown Dallas, officially called LBJ Freeway, is sometimes referred to by locals as the LBJ Parking Lot.  Probably the best way to U.S. 287 is to stay on I-20 west to Fort Worth.  I-20 passes by Dallas, then Ft. Worth on the south side, and upon approaching Ft. Worth, there are three options for getting to U.S. 287 north.  Before choosing an option, trace each of the three on a highway/street map that includes Ft. Worth and Arlington.
                Option 1:  Take U.S. 287 northbound exit off I-20 just west of Arlington.  This will merge onto I-35W at downtown Ft. Worth.  Stay on I-35W/US-287 north beyond I-820 and exit U.S. 287/81 north for Amarillo, Wichita Falls, and Decatur.  Advantage: shortest route.  Disadvantage: heavy, aggressive traffic all along; can get trapped in freeway lanes that take you off 287; easy to take a wrong turn and land in a scary part of town.
                Option 2: Stay on I-20 west and exit I-35W north (toward Denton and Oklahoma City).  Stay on I-35W north past downtown and beyond I-820.  Take U.S. 287/81 north to Amarillo, Wichita Falls, and Decatur. Advantage: easier route to follow than Option 1.  Disadvantage: adds a couple more miles; heavy traffic at downtown; watch for forced exit lanes to the left and right.  Second & third lanes from left are safest from forced exits.
                Option 3: Stay on I-20 west, southwest of Ft. Worth and take the I-820 loop north (don’t stay on I-20 to Abilene) which then turns east around northwest Ft. Worth.  Go north on I-35W and then north on U.S. 287/81.  Advantage: easiest route to follow, least traffic.  Also, lots of fast food places at White Settlement and Lake Worth.  Disadvantage: extra 10 miles, although traffic is relatively light but fast.  The exit for US highway 287/81 to Decatur, Wichita Falls, and Amarillo on I-35W is located north of I-820, north of downtown Ft. Worth.  After I-820, there is a Braums and a convenience store if you need food and/or fuel.  Farther along is the Texas motor speedway on the left (west).  The exit to US 287/82 is a right-hand exit, but is easily missed because it is inadequately marked.  So watch carefully for it.

Follow U.S. 287 through Decatur, Wichita Falls, Amarillo, and then up to Dumas, Texas.   WARNING! The stretch of U.S 287 between Ft Worth and Amarillo is a notorious speed trap.  Sometimes they work closely spaced so that after you pass one, another may be only a mile or two ahead.  You should be ok if you stay less than 4 m.p.h over the speed limit in rural areas and at or below the speed limit in towns.

At Dumas, take U.S. 87 north to Dalhart, TX, Clayton, NM, and Raton, NM where I-25 intersects.  Note Capulin Mountain, a basaltic cinder cone about 8000 years old, stands north of U.S. 87 between Des Moines, N.M. and Capulin, N.M.  Stop and collect some basalt from the road cuts about 5 to 7 miles west of Des Moines.  Calm down.  Take some pictures.

At Raton, get on I-25 north to Colorado Springs.  At Colo. Spgs. take Academy Blvd. west bound until it intersects Colorado State highway 115.  Or, stay on I-25 north and take the Nevada Street (which is highway 115) exit southbound.  If you get lost in Colorado Springs, ask for directions to Nevada Street or Highway 115 to Canon City (pronounced ‘Canyon’).  Don’t ask for directions to LSU Field Camp – most people in C.S. don’t know about the Camp and we prefer to keep it that way.

Timing: Baton Rouge to Ft. Worth is about 8 hours, assuming 4 m.p.h. over the speed limit and quick stops.  Weekday afternoon rush hour in Dallas and Ft. Worth begins at about 4:00 p.m. and slackens by about 6:30.  I-20 is ordinarily heavy and fast between I-35E (in Dallas) and I-35W (in Ft Worth) and seriously backs up if there’s construction or a wreck.  Tune your radio to AM 570, 820, or 1080 for traffic reports.  Aim to arrive at Ft. Worth before 3:00 p.m. or after 7:00 p.m. to avoid the afternoon rush hour.

Ft. Worth to Amarillo is about 6 hours.  There are plenty of cheap, clean motels in the towns along the way.  Try to make it at least to Childress the first day – there are plenty of gas stations, food places, and cheap motels (<$30 for a single room) there.  If you’re too broke for a motel, try camping at Lake Meredith north of Amarillo or just drive down some farm road and sleep in the car or ditch.  Sleeping in the car or on the ground is permitted in some Texas road-side rest areas.  Look for rest areas with trucks parked for the night, but be wary of drifters, panhandlers, hookers, and ne’er-do-wells.  There is a large rest area that accommodates car and RV camping somewhere between Decatur and Childress.  You might also try slipping in among some big rigs at a truck stop if you don’t mind the noise of their engines.  Just don’t be in their way when they pull out at sun-up.  The larger truck stops have pay- showers.

The trip from Baton Rouge to Colorado Springs takes about 21 to 24 hours depending upon your speed and stops.

Directions from Colorado Springs to LSU Field Camp

Drive south on Colorado State Highway 115 (Nevada Street) out of Colorado Springs according to signs for Canon City, Florence, and Penrose.  The four-lane divided highway merges together as a two-lane highway with a traffic light at the main gate of Fort Carson.  (Recent highway construction since last summer may have widened 115 to multiple lanes.)  The Camp road turn-off is about 4 miles south of this Ft. Carson gate.  From the Ft. Carson gate, highway 115 curves toward the southwest and then back south, climbing up and down over hills and gullies of flat-lying gray and brown Pierre shale (Cretaceous) with a cap of Tertiary age alluvial fan conglomerate.  About 2 miles along, look for the giant beetle of the “May Museum of the Tropics” on the west (right) side of the highway.  The Camp road turn-off is two miles south of this big bug.

Widely dispersed houses hidden among trees and shrubbery begin to appear along the west (right) side of the highway.  When the highway expands from 2 lanes to four, move into the right lane and search the right (west) side of the road for an abandoned gas station.  At  the abandoned gas station, begin braking  and turn on your right turn signal – the Camp road is about 200 meters farther south; it is located precisely at the far end of the guardrail on the right side of the road.  The Camp road entrance is blocked from view by weeds and trees and is easily missed if you’re going too fast.  At the road entrance is an almond colored pole barn, a silted-in cattle guard, a cluster of mail boxes, some on a ‘lazy susan’ made of a wagon wheel, a stucco house with dogs and kids’ toys, and a bunch of apparently nonfunctional vehicles strewn about.  This dirt road is not conspicuously marked as the road to LSU (for a reason) but one of the lazy-susan mailboxes says LSU on it.  (One mailbox has the Denver Bronco logo on its door.)  There is a small rusty street sign that reads “Keeton Road” or “Keeton Ranch Road”.

You’ll know you’ve missed the Camp road if you take the highway curve toward the west and drive downhill through road cuts of dipping layers of limestone, sandstone, shale, and then blood-red sandstone.
               
The Camp road is dirt with a wooden bridge, potholes, rocks, and washboards.  Cross the wooden bridge then stay left, proceed around the stockade fence on the left, and then just past the fence, turn right through a galvanized metal gate.  (The gate should be open.)  Upon passing through the gate you enter LSU property.  The road climbs through a small wash-boardy switch-back and up onto the Camp meadow.  After a short distance the Caretaker’s house is visible across the meadow at about 1:00.  There are some dilapidated log cabins on the left.  The next functional building you’ll see as you drive up the road is the shower house on the left (cedar siding and red sheet metal roof).  Park near the shower house, walk around it, and hike the steps down into Camp.  Find a cabin to live in and make sure the way is clear before driving down into the compound for unloading.  DON”T RUN OVER THE BLACK PLASTIC PIPES!!!

Sharing a ride to Camp:
If you plan to ride in another person’s vehicle or drive your own with riders, there are some issues that need to be addressed before the trip, regardless of how close your friendship is.  All of these subjects should be discussed and settled before loading the vehicle.

• Dates and times departure.
• How much room in the vehicle each person is allotted for his/her stuff.  If there is a lot of stuff and a lot of people, consider renting a U-Haul trailer one-way and splitting the cost.
• Overnight accommodations – where to stay and how much people are willing to pay.
• Cost sharing for vehicle fuel and repairs.  Don’t shrug off the topic of repairs.
• Speeding tickets and other traffic fines.  They’ll go on the driver’s record.

Above all, arrive at camp safely.  We will see you there!!