Mount Evans, Colorado -- Highest Paved Road in North America

I really enjoyed the road trip with Allen up to the top of Mount Evans, Colorado, yesterday.

 

Mt. Evans is one of Colorado's "Fourteeners", so-called because the summit is above 14,000 feet above mean sea level.   It is \west of Golden, south of the town of Idaho Springs.  A paved road leads through beautiful scenery, from I-70 all the way up to the summit.  It is a highly-recommended half-day trip.

 

Echo Lake, about halfway up the road.

 Echo lake from above.

The treeline is reached about 12, 500 feet.  The road is paved, but not in the best condition, is extremely narrow, winding, and completely without guardrails.  Often, there is a steep cliff right at the edge.

There are numerous little mammals living way up here.

The air is very thin, and being a low-lander, I can't walk very far without getting winded.  This was taken at a very short trail Allen found after we parked at Summit Lake, around 13,800 feet ASL.

 Summit lake still was mostly covered in ice, even at the end of June.

 A gorgeous mountain bluebird at Summit Lake.

The Camry didn't miss a stroke, and ran smooth as silk, even in the thin air.  We reached the top, 20 miles and about an hour from the entrance station, and found this view.  This is the view looking south.

 Looking west.

These ruins are the remains of a hospitality house at the summit which was destroyed by a propane explosion around the year 1943.  This is looking east towards Denver.  They claim you can see Nebraska on a clear day, but I don't believe it, since I've never seen any peak (or any trace, even) of the Front Range from Nebraska.

NCAR - Boulder

Had a visit with Allen to the National Center for Atmospheric Research.  The building, designed by the famed architect I.M. Pei (the same architect who designed the John Kennedy Library and the famous pyramid at the Louvre museum in Paris), sits atop Table Mesa just southwest of Boulder, Colorado.

 

 

In front of the building, the sidewalk was built around a pine tree.  Sadly, the pine tree is dead, but an artist has used the stump to create a nice wooden statue.

The view of boulder is nice from the top of Table Mesa. 

The mesa also offers a nice view of the flatirons.

 The center has a series of nature trails through the beautiful meadows and open woods surrounding the mesa.

Nice prickly-pears were blooming along the nature path.

Summer Rains...

We saw it coming...

and going...

and although the rain only lasted about 60 seconds, the rainbow stayed around for about 15 minutes.

Incredible Edibles...

While Debbie is in Germany eating chocolate, I'm here at home eating her garden!  I had a yummy dinner tonight, picked just a couple of minutes before eating!

Hiking Buddy: Elder Searle

I spent a good bit of Monday showing my good friend Elder Bob Searle (from Utah) some of my favorite trails in the Shenandoah National Park.  We first drove out past Grottoes and hiked up the Madison Run Fire Road to the Furnace Mountain Trail.  We forded Madison Run and went up the Furnace Mountain Trail a ways before coming back down.  Next we drove out past Crimora and hiked the RipRap Trail, going out about 2 miles, just past the intersection with the Wildcat Ridge Trail.  We crossed two fords on this trail, which is one of my favorites.  We turned back before getting to the swimming hole.

The rhododendrons are pretty much bloomed out by this time of year, and the mountain laurel is not yet at its peak.  But we found some pretty flowers nevertheless.

After lunch, we drove up to the Skyline Drive, and hiked along the Appalachian Trail up to Blackrock Summit.

Left around 10:30 a.m., got home around 6 pm, and after getting cleaned up, we had dinner with our wives at the Depot in Staunton.  Magnificent day!

Humpback Rocks

Hampback Rocks, in the George Washington National Forest on the Blue Ridge Parkway, is one of the more strenuous hikes I've undertaken in a long time.  It gains about 1200 feet of elevation in only a mile.   If you look closely at the photo below, you can see the Rocks in the center of the background.

Using the telephoto lens zoomed all the way in, you can just make out the people on top of the rocks a mile away.  Compare the size of the people to the size of the rock, and the rocks to the mountain shown above to get some idea of the altitude climb.  It is an UPHILL pull all the way.

 

 The rocks are a sheer cliff.  Fall, and you're toast.

 





 

 

And seems like there's always some daredevils wrestling and horsing around at the edge to show off how daring they are.  Two words:  stupid fools.  It's all fun and games until somebody ends up in pieces 200 feet below.  I had no plans to volunteer to help carry their bodies back down the mountain.  Fortunately, they came to their senses before that  happened. 

The view from the top is definitely worth the strenuous climb.

 

The old man made it, swollen ankle and all.  But it took a while, and a lotta rest breaks.

 

Coming back, I took the "long way home", and did the 4-mile loop, taking the Appalachian Trail north.

All I got to see of this bear was his hindquarters as he skedaddled.  By the time I could figure out what was causing the rustling in the leaves, he was at full throttle.  The camera didn't have time (or enough light since the zoom was all the way out) to focus properly.