Hikes old and new

from left to right: Bald Mt., Clover (which I have actually climbed,
when much younger! it's just under 13,000') and Aetna
(NOTE: this photo is from our second hike)

 Last time I showed you some of the views we had on our Colorado hikes last month, and I promised more positive images this time. So here we go!

The first hike we took was a very familiar one, along the Monarch Crest Trail southward from the pass. At the beginning, as you can see here, there was considerable evidence of tree-culling...

...but there were also long stretches of healthier-looking forests, as well as a considerable amount of residual snow, reminders of our surprise September storm:

As I showed you last time, many of the normally amazing distant views from this trail were obscured by smoke, but the sights nearer at hand were beautifully visible. Like Mt. Peck, which Henry probably briefly considered climbing; I've done it once before, though, and knew I was much too out-of-shape to handle it this time. It's not even close to a 14-er (it's just over 12,000) but that's an atmosphere that's still too thin for flat-lander old ladies!

And of course there's the Crest gondola, not working because of both covid and the fact that we were past its normal closing date. But it's still a handy landmark that makes it east to orient yourself, no matter where you are on the neighboring trails...

In fact, we were able to triangulate in on it throughout our second hike, too. And although it covered familiar terrain, it was a completely new hike for us. Hard to believe that we hadn't ever walked it, in all the years that we've been coming up here! 

Anyway, on the right is a shot of the gondola, through the trees, from the north side. We decided to try a different way to get from Old Monarch Pass to the new one this time, to make a loop instead of just going back and forth along the Pacific drainage side of the Divide. (One of my nephews, when young, always wanted to know if the trail they were starting out on was a "yoop" or not, so I'm always tempted to use that pronunciation when describing a loop trail. It is an important distinction that he picked up on very early!)

Walking along the Continental Divide is always a truly awesome experience, if you stop to consider where any spit (or other bodily fluid) will eventually end up—Atlantic or Pacific—depending on which way you aim.

Our "new" trail is one that starts just a bit down the Atlantic side from the pass and winds through some very nice scenery on its way to the new pass, not much over a mile away. From this side of the "yoop" there are wonderful views of our local group of mountains (see the photo at the top of the post, too). Here you can see Mts. Aetna and Taylor; the latter is right across the highway from our cabin...

The higher ones further to the right we think might be 14-ers Tabeguache and Shavano. (I am related to people who have climbed Shavano, a feat I'm okay knowing I'll never be able to match.)

There was still plenty of snow here, too, even making the trail a little muddy in spots...

Unfortunately, though a lot of this forest looked pretty healthy, there were still reminders that all is not well with these spruces (another cute kid-pronunciation, this one from our oldest granddaughter, who is quite fond of "boo pooce" trees )...

I hear that beetle-infested lumber actually makes beautiful paneling (google it). I guess that could count as a silver lining to this plague, but I can't believe it's worth all this damage to the forests.

As we got closer to the new pass, more culling became impossible to ignore. But here's an interesting, new (to us) view of the Monarch Crest gift shop, home of scrumptious fudge, as well as other treats, clothing, and supplies.

It's also where, in non-covid summers, you get your gondola tickets...

We didn't stop in this time (having already bought our fudge after the first hike), but just "yooped" around and headed back along the Pacific drainage side of our loop. Here's highway 50 wiggling away down the western side of the pass:

From this side, you can (on non-smoky days) see much further. Most of these views I've already showed you. But here's a nice shot of Mt. Ouray, an almost 14-er that people I'm related to have also climbed (but I'm okay saying I never will)...

The biggest, and most inconvenient, patch of snow we encountered was just before we got back to the car at the old pass...

Fortunately, we were wearing hiking boots! What a great hike this was! Next time the kids are with us, we'll be sure to take them on it. It's a testament to how wonderful our little piece of the Rockies is, that after all these years there are still new paths to discover. I'm sure there are more...maybe we'll go on another new hike next year.

Wordless Wednesday: stay on the trail, no matter what*

*Tootle

Seiser Alm/Alpe di Suisi: infrastructure and amenities

This is Compatsch (it doesn't seem to have an Italian name, too) and it would be your base of operations if you came to the Seiser Alm/Alpe di Suisi to ski.

It's full of amenities like hotels, restaurants and bars, shops, and of course WC's. We only took advantage of the last item, after our Hexenbänke/Banche delle Streghe hike. But it's also a transportation hub; we opted to ride a bus up to the meadow, but there are alternative modes...

This is the Seiser Alm Bahn/Cabinovia Alpe di Suisi, which leaves from the little village of Seis/Suisi (a little ways up the road from Kastelruth/Castelrotto). 

If we had better understood the bus system, we might have opted to hop a bus for Seis/Suisi (free with the pass provided by the hotel) and then taken the gondola up to Compatsch. It and the shuttle bus from Kastelruth/Castelrotto cost the same, but we had misunderstood our host and thought the shuttle bus was covered by our pass. Alas, it's part of a separate system that's not included, and we were too flummoxed by this mix-up to just wait for the bus to Seis/Suisi instead. Oh, well, next time we'll know better and will ride the fun gondola.

The bus ride was nice, though, and afforded some great scenery, as well as a look at some of the areas' livestock on the move...

We did see lots of cows (with incredibly loud bells around their necks!) while we were hiking, but that's not the only domestic animal living on the meadow in summer...

And of course the Seiser Alm Bahn/Cabinovia Alpe di Suisi isn't the only lift. In fact, looking at Rick Steves' map in his Italy guidebook, I counted five. (The link isn't to this map, but rather to an interesting and informative article about the area.)

If you want to do much hiking, you almost have to take one of the area's lifts. The meadow (according to RS' article) is about 3 miles by seven, and that's a lot of real estate to cover. Its elevation is about 6,500'.

To get to our main hike's starting point, we rode the Puflatsch/Bullaccia lift. It was a smooth, scenic way to get up the mountain, with a nice WC at the top terminus, a must stop before starting any hike.

There was other useful infrastructure at the top, too, from a restaurant and a tubing slide (!) to this extremely helpful, and well-designed, guide to the surrounding mountains:

At the top of a hill near the trailhead, it gives you 360° of mountain identifications...

I love signs like these when you have mountain views! Knowing the names of the peaks, not to mention their heights, for some reason enhances my enjoyment of the mountain experience.

This display was almost too detailed, including the names of peaks far, far in the distance, that might have been visible on really clear days, but which we couldn't really make out.

Plus, it has the bonus feature of being not just bi- but multi-lingual! The photo I've included above was only one of many I took, and they seem to have all the permutations of German-Italian-Ladin names: some have only German, some only Italian, and some only Ladin (as best I could tell). Then some are German/Ladin, some German/Italian, and some Italian/Ladin.

I guess some of the peaks have special significance to people of one language group or another? I'd love to have the time to study the background for all this linguistic variation...doesn't that sound like fun?!

Safety tip explained on the sign at the right: you can't spend a long time studying this wonderful mountain map in all kinds of weather. Tall hilltop, surrounded by metal—not such a good idea in  a thunderstorm. (Although the platform does come with its own angel-topped lightning rod, if you'll look at the first picture above.)

We didn't ride any of the area's other lifts, but after our Hexenbänke/Banche delle Streghe hike, we weren't quite ready to leave this amazing place. 

So we took another trail that follows the Panorama lift. (We were perhaps drawn to this trail since one of our favorite lifts at our "home" ski area is also called Panorama; you can see some winter photos taken atop it here.) It leads away from Compatsch in a different direction and we wanted to see what kind of views we could get heading that way.

Needless to say, the views were fabulous. It got a little chilly as the clouds thickened while we were hiking, but it wasn't too cold to have a nice sample of the local brew (Forst) al fresco, at the pretty fancy Santner Hotel and Restaurant...

nice views of Schlern/Sciliar included in the price of the beer!

This is just one of many establishments scattered all over the meadow, providing a pretty sweet infrastructure for hikers and skiers. What an incredibly civilized way to hike!

I took the following photo near another "rest stop," a slightly more rustic Hütte on our longer hike. "X marks the spot" indeed! This magical meadow was one of the highlights (not just because of the elevation!) of our trip.

Südtirol/Alto Adige: Seiser Alm/Alpe di Suisi

Ha, ha! Funny story! I thought I could fit all the photos of this magical meadow that I wanted to share into one blog post. What a dreamer! As soon as I started seriously sorting through them I knew this was impossible.

So I'm going to show you the best of my scenic shots today. Then next time I'll tell you about how we got up there, how we got around, and cover some other interesting points concerning the area's infrastructure.

The group of peaks in the photo up top is the Langkofel Group. You might remember the little German lesson I imparted when describing our first stroll around Kastelruth/Castelrotto: Kofel means cone-shaped hill or mountain. The eponymous Langkofel peak in the group is the one that's tipped with clouds in my introductory photo (lang means "long" in German).

I probably took fifty pictures of these peaks as the day progressed. Don't worry, I won't show you all of them, but it was hard to pare the collection down to a manageable number. They're so gorgeous! First up, here's a shot from earlier in the day, before the clouds descended...

Langkofel/Sasso Longo is the peak on the left; the wide, flat one on the right is Plattkofel/Sasso Piatto, platt meaning "flat." (I'll show you next time the handy signage that identified the peaks for me.)

Here's a closer-up view...

...one with the ever-photogenic dead tree in the foreground...

...and another look at Langkofel/Sasso Longo with the lowering clouds...

If there's a more handsome group of peaks anywhere, I'd like to see them. As a bonus, after doing some triangulation, we think we determined that these are the peaks we could see from our hotel room window, albeit from a different angle.

Of course, the most wonderful thing about this incredible meadow is that you have gorgeous peaks in every direction, even if the Langkofel are the most photogenic. I made a crude attempt to display at least 180° of this view; you can see the resulting video here.

The views even include, in spite of some haze, rows of mountains that are quite distant...

...and other layers in the mid-distance...

In fact, the very layered-ness of the scenery is one of its most memorable features...

On the other side of the meadow from the Langkofel Group you find the iconic Schlern/Sciliar, which makes such an impressive backdrop to many of my Kastelruth/Castelrotto village photos. We saw it from a few different angles during our hiking day. First, out the window on the bus ride up to the meadow...

...much later in the afternoon, on our hike up the trail that parallels the Panorama Lift (more on the area's lifts next time—yes, the meadow is actually a ski area!)...

...and a view once we'd climbed up level with its summit, on the our hike...

Can you blame this happy tourist for smiling?

Normally you would think that in order to see such spectacularly rugged peaks you'd have to do a lot of rock-climbing. But the beauty of the Seiser Alm/Alpe di Suisi is that it is really a meadow. Which means that you can get these fabulous views from the relative comfort of a gently undulating trail.

Our main hike took the Hexenbänke/Banche delle Streghe trail, one of the most popular, and there were a lot of fellow hikers on it with us. But with such an abundance of lovely space and scenery, we never felt crowded.

The trail makes a large loop, and on its edge away from the main meadow view, you still have fabulous scenery to enjoy. Specifically, you can look down at the valleys flanking the meadow, which are dotted with scenic villages.

I believe this is St. Ulrich, tucked so neatly into its valley

can you guess what town this is? doesn't the bell tower look familiar?

I couldn't help but try to imagine what this amazing scenery would look like blanketed in snow. Fortunately, there was this cool photograph on the wall in our hotel room, showing the Schlern/Sciliar from the Panorama lift, during ski season...

Doesn't that look incredible?! What a place this would be to ski, especially cross-country. Next time I'll show you some of the infrastructure perks on offer for skiers here. 

Of course, getting here would be more expensive than driving to Colorado, but the lift ticket prices seem actually reasonable compared to those at Rockies ski areas (although I'm not sure what all is included; you might have to pay extra for some lifts). Hmmmm...a future vacation idea?

Family fun on Colorado trails

It was so much fun last week to introduce this little person to one of our favorite areas in the whole

world—the lovely valley where we have our cabin, and the gorgeous mountains around it.

One of our favorite hikes around here starts at Old Monarch Pass on the Continental Divide.

So this easy trail is of course part of the Continental Divide Trail, but it's also on a loop of the Colorado Trail. (You can see the big loop on this map.)

Who knows? Maybe someday she'll want to hike the whole length of  these fine trails. And she might just remember her introduction to it with Gramma and Grampa.

[For a fun comparison, here are Henry and I in 1976 (before we were even married) near the Old Monarch Pass trailhead...

...and here we are with the wonderful latest addition to our family...

How did we get so old?! But if that's what it takes to have grandchildren—and I suppose it is—it's more than worth it!]

At any rate, our hike this time took us over to the new Monarch Pass, and back—a round trip I'd never made, for some reason. It was delightful and we had lots of entertainment along the way. 

It's a very easy trail, especially when taken at a two-year-old's pace...

...and there are plenty of things to stop and look at as you stroll. Especially since we brought our tree identification book along with us. 

Distinguishing the various types of conifers along the trail is more complicated than you might think, and provides lots of fun for the scientifically-minded, young and old. [Nix' favorite species: "boo puce."]

Of course, focusing on the trees is a little depressing, too, since so many more have succumbed to various beetle diseases over the past few years. (And we've heard that there are all kinds of new beetle kills now, including a spruce beetle.)

The prayer flags flying from this much older dead tree could be memorializing the dozens and hundreds that are dying now.

I wish the picture below was an accurate representation of how many dead trees there are in relation to healthy ones, but at least at this altitude, the ratio would probably be reversed...

But, the scenery is still great on this hike, and it's close enough to treeline that it doesn't traverse very thick stands of trees. For that reason, I don't think it will have to be closed any time soon, as a matter of safety. Many trails and campgrounds in other parts of Colorado have been at least temporarily closed due to the danger of falling dead trees.

One of our other outings took us directly, by car, to new Monarch Pass. We hiked along the trail south of there for a while, then headed up to the Monarch Crest gondola...another fun activity introduction.

The hike up to the terminus of the gondola is somewhat strenuous (and we're not the softies that actually ride up...where's the fun in that?). But the views are spectacular and were enjoyed by all...

Plus, upon descending, we had the great amenities available at the Crest gift shop at our disposal...and we took full advantage of them.

Nix got to fill a bag with pretty rocks, courtesy of Gramma
(this is one of my favorite gift items at the store)

and there was ice cream!