Amazing Colorado!

This weekend my friend Lisa invited me to share her birthday weekend backpacking with her in the West Elks wilderness in southwest Colorado.  It was BEAUTIFUL!

We were parked, packed up, and ready to hike by 3:30 pm on Friday.  We hiked in about 3ish miles and found an idyllic camping site.  It was a small meadow of lush greenery and dandelions surrounded by aspens and tall pine trees. 

This was the tent and its backdrop as we viewed it from our spot at breakfast:

The early morning sun made for a great view over breakfast.

All the dandelions in the little meadow were lit up with the sun:

The birthday girl enjoying her coffee:

 

After our leisurely morning meal we got on our way.  Our goal was Storm Pass, which was about five miles one way from our site.  The whole hike was stunning though, so it made the length manageable.  We were treated to views of unique rock formations, waterfalls, valley vistas, and interesting old trees.

 

 

 

 

 

The view from Storm Pass was fabulous.  We had an excellent view of the Castles and the clouds made the view all the better.

We were also surprised to see a good variety of wildflowers!  This one is an avalanche lily, it grows as snowfields recede.  We saw gobs of them. 

The white and blue flowers below are two kinds of campion (I think), they are tiny.

This is a budding flower and I have no idea what it is.

This is a tiny little flower that looks like an orchid.

These little sunshines are asters.

This is a red columbine!  It looks like a firework.

We got back to camp with enough time after dinner to sit by a stream nearby and enjoy the evening sun and some beverages.  There were some flowers around us, Indian Paintbrush, that were awesome in the light of the lowering sun.

 

We packed up and hiked out the next morning (today/Sunday) and, guess what?, the morning light was stupendous!  This is the two of us before we set off:

These are two shots of Lisa on the trail through the aspens:

 

This was a parting view of the rock formations:

I forgot!  There were lots of cows!!  Cattle are allowed to graze on public lands with permits and graze they do.  On the way in we were literally herding cattle down the trail as they ran from us and mooed loudly.   On the way out we only saw a few:

The only downside to doing a trip like this fairly early in the season is that the bar is raised pretty high in terms of expectations of beauty – many places will pale in comparison.