We left for the hour long drive around 9:00 and got started on the hike around 10:15, crossing the two lane road and hiking up past a forest service road.
The hike started out with tall trees on either side of the trail, giving little to no view of anything. There were a few clearings, however, where previews of the upcoming views could be seen.
We then came to a small outcropping of rocks just off the trail with a great view out across the surrounding lower mountains.
Through all the trees, and up at the top, there were large drifts of snow, some 3 or 4 ft deep. Even though it was a warm day, the wind at the top made it a bit chilly to stand on the rocks at the summit.
We summited at noon, even with all my picture taking stops (I only took about 80 pictures, I was holding back!) Some arrived before us and some a little after, but we were all at the top within a few minutes of each other.
A short scramble up some rocks provided us with quite a reward for climbing this mountain - Mt Evans and Mt Beirstadt to the west, as well as Pike's Peak far off to the south.
Even up on the top of a mountain you see lots of things. This little chipmunk stole an apple core that had been dropped:
And a few flowers were around too:
4 comments:
Sounds like a good hike! Trent, your scenery pictures are great to look at - adding some people into a few pictures will give readers a better sense of what the experience was like and will compliment your narrative nicely!
-When is Segment 5?
I'm not sure when 5 will be, right now my back isn't up to more walking than 5 blocks, and definitely not up to carrying any sort of pack weight. Don't know how I hurt it again, but I did.
Great pictures, once again! I like the little blue flowers in the last picture and didn't even see them until I clicked on that pic to get a better look. Those mountain views are just spectacular!
Hey Trent!
Came on to comment and forgot all about what I was going to say -- sorry about your back! That is no good! Whatever you did last time to fix it, make sure you do it again!
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