Family time is extremely important to me. And the older I get it just gets more and more important to me. That's one of the reasons why I love the summer time. The kids are out of school, it's a slower time of year business wise and I get to spend a lot of time with my wife and kids. Last year my family and I went to Cutty's Campground by Hayden Creek in southern Colorado, and it did not disappoint. So we decided to make it an annual trip and we went again this year. Here are the details of our epic family adventure at Cutty's Campground Summer 2025.
Last year we went in late July for 3 days. We loved it so much, and our youngest is 1 year older so it should be a little easier to travel with her this year, so we decided to stay for 4 days this year instead of 3. This year we went during the 4th of July holiday. Man what a time to be alive. We loaded up my 2002 Dodge Dakota (this year with a roof rack for extra storage) and headed off to Cutty's. The drive is only about 2 hours so it's not too bad (that's one of the things I love about Colorado; if you go in any direction for 2 hours you'll be in the mountains in a beautiful part of the state) even with 3 little kids.
We got to Cutty's just at about check in time, 3pm, and we again stayed in one of their creekside cabins. These cabins are great. No TV, no wifi, but it does have electricity, a bathroom, a small kitchen and a loft area that is great for the kids to sleep in, plus it's right by Hayden Creek. I highly recommend the creekside cabin for anyone looking to go to Cutty's with small kids (ours were 9, 5 and 1 during this trip).
. 
Once we got there the fun started immediately.
One thing my family loves about Cutty's is that it has an outdoor pool (along with basketball courts, pickleball courts, mini golf and a volleyball pit) and once we were there, the kids wanted to hit the outdoor pool first thing so that's where we went.
This outdoor pool is great but...it. is. freezing! Even in July when it's scorching hot outside this outdoor pool is almost too cold for me. But the kids loved it. Well my two oldest loved it, my youngest daughter, Michaela, hates the water believe it or not so she didn't go into the pool. But man what a great way to start the trip, sitting by the pool reading a book while the kids played and swam together in the pool.
After the pool was my favorite part...hanging outside the cabin by the creek. Just being outside in the mountain air, listening to the sound of the creek while my kids play in the creek. I absolutely love moments like these. They're so relaxing and I just get overwhelmed with gratitude that I'm able to spend this kind of time with my family.
What happened next almost could've derailed our trip. My son and oldest daughter played together in the creek and my wife started getting the burgers ready to grill. I was hanging out with my youngest by the creek. Then I started walking up the stairs back towards the cabin, holding my youngest in one arm and a rusted grill top in the other. I wanted to ask my wife what she thought about using the grill top over the firepit. Then it happened...I tripped on the 3rd stair from the top of the staircase. The grill top flew out of my hand down the stairs and I started to hop on one leg, trying to keep my balance and not drop my daughter or fall hard on her. I hopped on my left leg 4 times, at one point thinking, "I've got this!", but then I realized "I don't got this" and I was going to fall and sure enough I did. Luckily, I caught my fall enough that I didn't land hard on my daughter and she didn't get hurt. But I did slice my knee up pretty bad and banged up my shoulder and scraped both arms pretty good.
Like I said, this could've derailed the trip if someone got seriously hurt but thankfully no one did. Afterwards, we proceeded to grill some burgers and they were some of the best burgers of my life. My youngest daughter and I got to share in some burgers together down by the creek after our little "fall". After the burgers we spent some time just relaxing by the fire as the sun went down, making s'mores and talking about life. It was great.
. 
. 
. 
That was a pretty eventful, yet awesome, Day 1 of Cutty's and Day 2 did not disappoint either.
Day 2 was probably one of the most relaxing days of our trip (no falls this day). We didn't have much of anything planned and we spent a lot of time walking around the the campground talking, having fun and just taking in the mountains and each other's company. There was no agenda or anything we "had" to do which was a nice change of pace compared to the busyness of everyday life back home.
We explored some of the park where they have tent sites, RV sites with hookups as well as some of their covered wagon sites. Cutty's is actually a pretty big campground and it would take awhile to walk the entire park.
We got to take in some mini golf at the mini golf course in the campground. Now, I don't take mini golf seriously at all, it's just fun to mess around and have fun putting some balls on some crazy courses. But my son?...he takes mini golf VERY seriously. Too seriously honestly! But that's ok, it was a blast watching the kids try their best at some mini golf. How seriously do you take mini golf?
We came across a playground that my youngest could not get enough of. She loved climbing up the playground, going down the slides and exploring the pretend hotel, bank and other play structures that were at the playground. I love just being able to sit and watch her play. It's one of the most calming and innocent things to witness and I'm so grateful that I got to share that time with her. I was also able to get a picture of her and I at the playground and it has quickly become my new favorite picture of her and I. Her smile just absolutely melts my heart and I just love this picture of her and I.
After exploring the campground most of the day we ended the day with some more chillin' by the creek, eating dinner and making s'mores. This is one of the best parts of Cutty's and camping in general; spending time together as a family talking and connecting and having the sounds of the creek in the background. But my favorite part of the day was coming after dinner...
. 
MOVIE NIGHT!
Cutty's plays a movie at dusk on a big projector outside their kitchen and next to their volleyball pit on the weekends and on holidays (weather permitting). Luckily, the weather was nice to start the movie. We made a couple bags of popcorn, brought some cokes and some chairs and set up shop to watch the movie, "Night at the Museum". My 2 daughters passed out from the exhaustion of the day, but my son was glued to the movie screen and loved it. Towards the end of the movie it started to rain, and us, and everybody else, packed up our stuff and starting running as fast as we could back to our cabins/tents/RVs for the night.
. 
Days 2 was amazing and I loved every minute of it. We went to bed (fully drained and exhausted but grateful and satisfied!) getting ready for the next day...July 4th!
On our last day we spent the July 4th holiday taking in some more festivities and relaxing activities together as a family. Cutty's makes 4th of July pretty fun, especially for the kiddos, even though we didn't get to see any fireworks (there was an active fire ban going on since they had just had a fire a few months earlier). However, if you did want to see fireworks you could drive 20 miles or so to Salida and see some fireworks.We went to the pool again, did more playground time of course (for my youngest daughter, she just couldn't get enough), more mini golf and of course more relaxing by the creek. But probably the most fun was the ice cream social. This was inside the famous Cutty's kitchen and we all got to make our own ice cream bowls/cones. They had almost any flavor you could think of, along with almost any topping you could think of. I can't remember what everyone else got, but I'm old school and went with just a classic bowl of vanilla ice cream with nuts on top. It was some of the best ice cream I've ever had.
Outside of the ice cream social the best part of Day 3 was when we ended the night with a very intense and competitive game of Jenga😀. I'm a pretty competitive person but my son Vas makes me look like the only kicker on the team during the NFL preseason. What made this Jenga session so much fun was that it was LONG. Every time I thought the tower would tumble, it wouldn't and the game would keep going. It kept going, and going, and going. But my oldest daughter eventually toppled the tower. She was devastated😔. She thought she ruined the game for everyone, but we all used it as an opportunity to remind her that Jenga is more about having fun and spending time together. Which we certainly did so that's a win.
. 
. 
Sadly, all good things comes to an end.
We left Cutty's the next morning but we left closer as a family, full of fun summer memories and a thirst to come back next year and do it all over again.
I encourage you to spend the most time you can with your family doing stuff that you all enjoy and that brings you closer together. These things are what true wealth is all about. Time goes by fast, money comes and goes and is temporary, but the memories you make together as a family are forever and are the true treasures you'll have in this life. The real goal behind wealth and finances is to be able to bless your family and bless others. That's why I do what I do for my clients and for my family.
Cheers.
-Michael