Top of the World

It's hard not to believe you're nearing the top of the world when the trail stretches before you like this, eh?

We took a breathtaking (figuratively and literally) hike from Cottonwood Pass during our trip to Colorado last month. The road to the pass runs along the north side of Mt. Princeton, a gorgeous massif that's one of our county's dozen 14-ers, and the drive up there and back was a scenic delight in itself. (You can see some pictures from Cottonwood Lake, along that road, in this post.)

Henry learned from a friend at work that this section of the road up to the pass (the side in the Atlantic drainage) is all paved now, so we figured we couldn't lose checking it out. 

Here's a look at the road we traveled...

...while this is the road down into the Pacific drainage, heading towards Crested Butte... (it's not paved but looks well-maintained and eminently driveable; we'll have to take it sometime and see what views it affords to that side of the mountains)...

We did some rough calculations using the GPS feature on my camera, and figured that the unnamed peak we climbed on our hike wasn't much more than 500 or 600 feet above the pass. More fun research with USGS topo maps (your tax dollars at work!) at home confirmed that our "summit" wasabout 12,560. Plenty high enough for old lungs! But not even worth a peak name in the Colorado high country.

Up at the top we found the sign that I'm showing you here on the right. This point just happens to be where these two major trails—the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail—join up for a bit.

We also found not one, but two, nice rock shelters that made it easy to get out of the wind to have our lunch. You can't beat this for a picnic spot! Here's Henry, exploring the shelter that we didn't use, with a rather impressive backdrop. It's hard to estimate distances when the air is so clear, but I think those mountains are probably the ones around Crested Butte.

As always on hikes in the Rockies, the micro-scenery is almost as impressive as the macro. Take a look at the gorgeous veins of quartz in this hunk of granite just sitting beside the trail:

And although most of this countryside is well above treeline, there are still some handsome trees to see now and then...

And there are cultural items to entertain, too. Like the generous collection of amusing stickers covering this warning sign. Hopefully no one drives up here in the dark and needs to be warned away from the edge of the cliff! (Click to enlarge the image if you want to see what people feel is worth leaving here.)

It's a constant wonder to us, how many wonderful trails and how much amazing scenery is within easy driving distance from our Colorado front door!

Midas was here: coins in the treasure chest

Last time I focused on the wonderful mountainsides with flashes of aspen gold that we were treated to in Colorado last month.

But it's hard to say which perspective is more impressive: those panoramic shots or what I want to show you this time—the leaves up close and personal.

down the hill from the River House

They do look like golden coins, don't they?

Since we spent a lot of time working on our cabins, it was fortunate that I didn't have to go far from my front door to be able to watch and admire the golden trees. Even housework and lighting repairs aren't drudgery when you can take a quick break now and then and catch sights like these...

the view from one of our upstairs bedrooms

our own personal golden treasure

early morning sun makes the Schoolhouse's gold more orange

dressing up our new roof in morning sunlight

During our visit, even though it was brief, we could see the color fading. Especially after a couple of windy days. But even if there are only a few leaves left, they are still beautiful.

the last few coins left in the chest

As it happened, less than two weeks after we left, they had a major snowstorm in these mountains. Which probably spelled the end of the very last coins. So we were luckier than we thought!

By the way, I got probably a little carried away with trying to capture the magical movement of these gorgeous bits of biomass. This is the best of the videos that I took in this attempt, if you want to see the aspen actually quaking.

Midas was here: panoramas

What else can you think, when you see a sight like this, but that Midas just flicked his fingers randomly across the mountainside?

The aspens we were just in time to see (two weeks later, the area had several inches of snow!) weren't just gold...they were electric gold, especially when the sun hit them...

They looked for all the world like someone had plugged them in and made them glow with an almost unnatural brightness.

Even though we were obviously in central Colorado after a good many of the changed leaves had blown off the trees—take a look at all the bare trunks here...

...and here...

...the color was still spectacular, at least in our experience.

Here are some more rather pallid attempts to share this experience with you. I couldn't stop taking pictures, but unfortunately none of them can really convey the glory of the gold and green...

...or even the gold on barer hillsides—still spectacular!

of course, aspen trunks are quite handsome, too

Clover Mt. at the end of a bi-colored road

multi-level color along US highway 50

golden sprinkles at Cottonwood Lake

the view from our deck!

a last look at Cottonwood Lake

Next time, I'll feature some more up-close-and-personal looks at this gorgeous vegetation, where the Midas metaphor is even more appropriate!

Wordless Wednesday: There be dragons...

Flying frequently

I heartily apologize for my last of posts the last few weeks, but I think I have a good excuse. And, the traveling I've been doing will result in, I hope, a raft of interesting entries in the days and weeks to come.

Some hints of what's on tap:

Wordless Wednesday: odd man out

Fall color

I was surprised to see that it's been a couple of years since I posted about the lovely flowers we have around here once the days get shorter and [at least a little bit] cooler.

But I've been impressed again this fall with some glorious floral decorations on my walks to and from my bus stops, as well as my weekend-trying-to-reach-10,000-steps-a-day walks around the neighborhood.

Here are some samples:

another look at these wonderful yellow flowers (name unknown to me)
in one of the yards in the St. Mary's neighborhood

another flower I don't know on a vine near the San Pedro bus stop
(there are better pix of these in the older post, but I couldn't help snapping them again)

Bougainvilleas are among the flashiest flowers in this part of the world, and they almost impossibly seem to last all summer. But they are really coming into their own now. 

The same yard on the west side that has those lovely yellow blooms also has a couple different shades of bougainvillea...

the nice couple that live here really love to garden!

Then, just this morning, I saw another impressive two-toned display of these beauties in my neighborhood...

East side, west side, all around the town...it's a great season for flowers!