'Hiking' Mt. Evans.

 Saturday was our hiking day! Robyn and I used to go hiking ALL THE TIME together in Seattle. It was only fitting that we explore some of the Rockies during her visit. :)

I had been incredibly nervous about driving into the mountains after the fires that we've had recently. The temperatures were not getting any cooler and the last thing you want to do is be buried deep in the mountains when the wind picks up and a fire comes burning your direction. YIKES.

After researching something that was FAR AWAY from either of two main fires, we settled on Mt. Bierstadt. This is also one of the easiest 14ers to hike. :) Early Saturday morning we hopped in the car and hit the road.

'Hiking' is in quotes because the whole day turned out to be different than planned. ha. First, my computer gave me incorrect directions (c'mon Google Maps...you're supposed to be the best mapping source!), so instead of driving to Mt. Bierstadt we ended up at Mt. Evans. Not the end of the world except that we accidentally DROVE all the way to the top too-ha! It was pretty frustrating but we had no idea where we were going and the Mt. Bierstadt hike starts at 11,669 ft so we thought we were driving up to the trail head.

We passed tree line and started thinking..."there's not much of a mountain left to hike!" as we kept winding up. Next thing you know, we were at the top of MT. EVANS....not even the right mountain. haha. So we 'hiked' a whole 300 yds to the summit from there to get some photos and then proceeded to get back in the Subaru for the drive down.

The drive was terrifying...narrow hairpin turns and no guardrails but we made it just fine after lots of squeals, pounding hearts in our chest and a million prayers. Since we had missed out on the hike up, we thought we could stop at Summit Lake on the way down and do a quick hike over to Mt. Hebron.

By that point the winds had picked up, the famous CO thunderstorm clouds had rolled in all too quickly and we immediately got distracted by a mountain goat sighting (couldn't get a good pic :( ). ha! It was over before it began...our motivation was out the window and we were more concerned about getting down the mountain safely than spending any more time hiking. As if we had already done so much...

SO, here are our photos from 'hiking'. No matter what, being in the mountains is my favorite thing and it is always, always breathtaking. It is such a blessing to live in such a beautiful state and to be in awe of our amazing God for creating this beauty!

Summit Lake

loved these little plants-so sweet!

 

 

 

 Here's to actually hiking it next time!