from summer to winter and back again in one day

[ilanarama]

On Sunday, Britt and I drove about an hour north to a new-to-us trailhead in the mountains between Silverton and Telluride. It took a while to find the trail, off a jeep road that inexplicably made a loop above the highway (presumably it originally gave access to a mine); once we did, we climbed a bazillion switchbacks through a pretty pine forest carpeted with early wildflowers, until we broke out into a beautiful treeline basin.


Behind us we could see the Trinities, Vestal, and Arrow peaks through a notch. Incidentally, Arrow (and a bit of Vestal) is the mountain in the icon I'm using on this post.



Where we saw elk! A big herd of them! And they had babies! Cute tiny little elk calves! Of course they scented us immediately and scampered up the side of the basin ("we don't need no steenkin' trail") and we sat and watched them leave before continuing on.





We hiked up through the basin, over the ridge (the opposite side of the basin that the elk took) and across snowfields ranging from tiny to immense:





Looking down at a tiny unnamed lake in a basin to the east:



Finally we arrived at the still mostly-frozen Columbine Lake:





And then we hiked back down to where the snow has been gone for months already.

Comments

[mergatrude]

Oh, these photos are awesome! I can't get over the mountains you people have.

[ilanarama]

I have a hard time believing it myself, and I LIVE here. Mountains! Great big mountains! We have bunches of them!

[mrkinch]

I'm so envious! Not that I could do the distance, or the altitude, but it's been very long since I've been in the mountains. Utterly gorgeous, and elk! I've never seen more than one or two.

[ilanarama]

It's pretty rare to come upon a herd even here, but it's wonderful. And seeing all the calves - pretty much every cow elk had a calf with her - makes us feel good about the health of the local animals. (Particularly since every fall Britt goes and shoots one for us to eat. :-)

[traveller42.livejournal.com]

Truly beautiful country!

[ilanarama]

Come on back sometime!

[delurker]

Baby elk! \o/

[ilanarama]

YESSS! That was the best part of the whole hike for me. The pictures don't really show it but through binoculars we could see lots and lots of babies of all different sizes, from the small to the teeny. And then when we walked across the snowfield we could see their itty bitty hoofprints!

[zulu]

Oh man, it's just like home! :D

[ilanarama]

Where you are not! You're still in England, right?

Where exactly is home for you, anyway? I kind of recall you lived in central west Canada somewhere.

[zulu]

Yeah, I'll be here until December, save breaks for doing a little world travelling. And home is Alberta, yep. Prairies and mountains! Ah, I miss that kind of scenery when I'm hiking.

[(Anonymous)]

I miss living in Colorado sometimes. Lovely pictures, Ilana!

Eric W.

[ilanarama]

Thank you!

[blnchflr]

Is that pinks snow I spy? Or merely dirty snow? It's so weird seeing snow - we're having lovely summery, if not yet (thankfully!) scorching days.

[ilanarama]

It's dirty snow. We had (according to an article in yesterday's paper) nine dust storms during the winter, and the snow is far from pristine. Also, it's kind of old at this point. Of course down here where I live (6000 feet below this snow) it is summery also!

[barkley.livejournal.com]

I am moving to Colorado tomorrow!

[ilanarama]

I wish you would. We could go biking together (and you would stomp my sorry butt, because I haven't been road biking in ages, and my longest ride lately has been 12 miles).

[malnpudl]

SO PRETTY!

Also: ELKSES! :-D

I am envious. I really miss hiking, or even just long walks, in beautiful places. I used to love that. *wistful* Maybe some day I'll have cyberknees and will be able to get out there again.

[ilanarama]

I KNOW! ELKSES! I was so excited to see them that I didn't actually care if we made it to the lake or not.

I'm so bummed for you about your body not letting you do the things you want to do.

[melusina]

These are so gorgeous. . .I love your photos of all your adventures - they're a great glimpse of a completely different part of the country. Just looking at these pictures cooled me off after my HOT bike ride this afternoon! And also made me want to do more hiking. . .

[ilanarama]

Hee, yes, a very different part of the country. Honestly I can't imagine living where you do in the summer. I would melt into an itty bitty puddle.

[pir8fancier]

So peaceful looking.

[ilanarama]

Thanks! It's peaceful to be hiking there too.