The Festival in the Arkansas River Valley's Backyard

If you call the Arkansas River Valley home, this one's practically in your backyard. Badger Music & Arts Festival sits just over the hill from Buena Vista in Hartsel — a 45-minute drive through some of the most outrageous high country in Colorado — bringing bass, electronic music, and a camping community to 9,000 feet.

From Salida it's under an hour up US-285 North. No I-70, no Eisenhower Tunnel, no ski-season crawl. Just open road through South Park and straight into the grounds. The kind of easy that makes you wonder why you ever drove four hours for a festival before.

The Thursday pre-party lands on the Perseid meteor shower under a new moon, and at our elevation with zero light pollution, it's one of the best seats in the state for it. Bass below, meteors above, and a temporary desert family in between. This is the kind of festival that belongs in these mountains.