Montgomery Pass

Ah ... TGIF. A lot has happened since my last entry! My mom and stepdad, Jim, came to visit us last week. We had a good time exploring Colorado. I was very impressed with both of them - we had a busy, active week. Jim had a small heart attack last year, and it is great to see him being active. He arrived on Tuesday night, on by Thursday afternoon was hiking 6.5 miles at 10,000 feet in Rocky Mtn. NP. My mom completed a tough hike up the west side of Montgomery Pass earlier in the week. Good stuff!

The hike with my mom was part of an overnight trip to the Upper Montgomery Pass yurt (operated by Never Summer Nordic). We stayed there Monday night. On the way up, we ventured along Long Draw Road, on the eastern side of Camerron Pass. We saw 8 moose!!! The coolest sighting was our first - 3 males hanging out in Trap Lake. We also saw a baby, probably just a few months old. It was so cute! We arrived at the yurt around 6 PM and it was literally 110 degrees in the Yurt! So we hung out on the porch overlooking a valley and the Mt. Zirkel range to the west. The 12,000+ foot mountains that rise from Montgomery Pass were to our right. It was a great view. The sunset was phenomenal, we could actually see the sun go all the way down, as it sank slowly behind the far off mountains.

The hike to Montgomery Pass is kind of hard because it's on a 4 wheel drive road, which tends to have less switchbacks than a trail. But it was well worth the ascent to see the glory of the meadows at the pass. The air was fragrant from the abundant wildflowers. It was amazing. Chris and I daydreamed of hiking along the ridgeline that goes from Camerron Pass to where we were and then on and on for miles into Wyoming and beyond. It will be a good trip sometime (soon, hopefully!).

That is probably enough writing for now. It is about 12:25 AM and I am waking up at 6:00 to ride with Christine (I'm getting up early so I can eat breakfast and have coffee, we aren't riding until 7:30). But there is more to come ... 4th of July party and watching fireworks in 4 different cities at once ... a good, wet hike in RMNP ... the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and hanging our feet off a 2300 foot cliff ... rafting on the Arkansas ... etc etc. I feel so fortunate that for Chris and I, the vacation in Colorado never ends. :)