2016 Colorado Trail

Denver to Durango 

8/3/16-9/14/16

The trail starts outside of Denver with a 6 mile walk up Waterton Canyon

A Mule Deer doe and Fawn

Ellie saying Hi to a herd of goats

The family of rocky mountain goats then ran up the cliff and watched from the canyon wall

We used the same umbrellas as on the PCT to help with the heat

Black Cormorant sunning on a rock

Finally off the road and on forest trail

Huge Dandelion-like seed head the size of a softball

The water cycle is very complex in Colorado involving underground canoers, flying fish, and awkward beach-goers

The beginning parts of the trail reminded us of the Southern California mountains

We picked up a mail drop at this 117 year old general store 

Camping under the granite

Ellie found her favorite rock in the whole wide world

Aspen tree grove

The beautiful, complex texture of Aspen bark

Lodgepole pines

A male and female moose came out on the trail right in front of us!

They just went on to graze in the field and we sat transfixed

An hour later we got to watch a herd of cows come down to the meadow to feed while we were taking a break

There’s so many more mushrooms and other fungi out here than we expected

1000 year old Jeffrey Pines 

Grouse in the woods

Still some snow on the mountains

A herd of Mountain Goats on the shoulder of Guyout Mountain

Silhouettes of the goats from the pass

The CT joins up with the 3,100 mile long Continental Divide Trail for over 300 miles

There always seems to be one storm going on somewhere all the time

View from that evenings camp

The invasive Pine Beetle devastated the pine forests and the trees had to be cut down.  They’re then stack to be burned

just don't stand in the corner...

HUGE bull Moose

Meadow we camped by under the creatively named Peak 5 and Peak 6

Sunrise view out of the tent 

Marmots are the best mountaintop entertainment

Moonrise from that nights camp

Wildflower meadow heading up to Searle Pass

A Ferruginous Hawk came around and all of the Marmots and Pikas started running back into their dens and send out all kinds of warning signal calls

If only we had some tropical drinks melting in our hands

The old ammunitions bunker is all the left of Camp Hale where soldiers were trained for mountain combat in WWII.   Even more interesting, in the sixties the CIA secretly trained Tibetan Special Forces there in an effort for them to take Tibet back from China

Welcome to Leadville

Victorian All-Seeing Eye of God stained glass window

This bar has been operating for over 150 years old

Antique Bolt Drawers

Ellie made a new friend!

Big beers at the Tennessee Pass Cafe!

Mule Deer Buck

Approaching the summit of Colorado's highest peak- Mt Elbert

View of Twin Lakes form Elbert

Restored house on the property of Interlaken- a late nineteen century resort.  It's about a mile hike to get to, but the house is fully open for the public to explore unsupervised.

A little further down the trail is the original hotel, some of the small cabins and a barn.

Woke up to fresh snow on the peaks!

Mt Princeton shrouded in clouds

Chalk cliffs outside Mt Princeton Hot Springs

Alien Cliff

The middle sections of the Colorado Trail travel through huge open pasturelands

We fell asleep to howling coyotes in the distance after this memorable sunset.

Organ Pipe Mountain

Mt Yale

Ptramigan

Full afternoon rainbow

Burrowing Owl coming out at dusk

Red Mountain from Snow Mesa

Ellie's "boogity-boo" did nothing to scare away the inquisitive cows that wanted to join us for lunch

Hawk at dusk

There is a yurt that CT thru-hikers are welcome to use as long as no one is currently renting it out.  Luckily we were able to share it that evening with fellow hikers Virgina, David, and Miles.

View from the yurt window.  A new moon, combined with no clouds made for an amazing night of stargazing!

Red Mountain

Old mining building and boiler tank

Conglomerate rock formation

At Cataract Lake we woke up to sleet pecking at our tent that soon turned into a steady snowfall which lasted a couple of hours.

Withing a few hours of the snow stopping, it had almost all melted away.

Perching marmot

Sheep grazing on the mountainside

The shepherd's horse was tethered up further down the trail.  We saw his dog roaming around another 1/4 mile away, but never did see the shepherd himself.

Hand picked mine shaft

Age has made the mining cabin's roof like the neighboring mountain

An old narrow-gauge railroad runs between Durango and Silverton. In the Weminuche Wilderness you can flag down the train and get taken directly into the town.  Of course we had to try it!

Peeling paint in Silverton

A herd of Mule Deer, including this buck, came with ten feet of us while we were eating dinner around our first campfire

Papoose Mountain

Walking in the cloud on Indian Ridge Trail

All of a sudden the clouds momentarily cleared and we saw our first view off the day.

Then, the clouds ended up staying completely on one side of the ridge while the all of the clouds on the other side of the ridge cleared out.  They swirled to our left like steam coming from a cauldron.

All of these conditions came together to create one of the most magical moments either one of us have ever experienced in our  lives.  While we were walking along the crest of the high ridge  the low angle of the setting sun cast our shadow onto the dense clouds on our left.  This caused a rainbow to form around our shadows.  As we walked we could watch our shadows surrounded in that amazing, glowing aura.  You can see it all in the video below.

Our last day on the trail

Scrub Oak

Finished!

Half an hour later, a torrential hail storm came through, so we finished up at the right time.  What shelter in the storm are we taking this picture from? Taco Bell, of course! 

Vacancy sign on our hotel in Durango.

      So ends the thru-hike part of our trip and begins our 3 day road trip from Durango to Vegas.  First we visited Mesa Verde National Park. Then we drove to Cortez and visited various Puebloan sites strewn through the desert called Hovenweep.  After spending the 3rd night at the Navajo National Monument we drove we through Arizona and southern Utah ending up in Vegas to fly home and complete an unforgettable trip.

We camped on Bureau of Land Management property on the outskirts of Mesa Verde National Park.

Agave and Juniper

Sleeping Ute Mountain with the setting sun

Full Moon rising over the desert

Cliff Palace at MVNP

View straight up into one of the towers.  Due to the dry climate all of the 500 year old wooden beams are original.

Ceremonial Kiva

The second site we visited in MVNP was the Spruce House.  A smaller site perched on the end of a steep canyon cliff.

There is the outline of a former wall that went up to the ceiling of the cave the encloses the soot stain from the cookfire

Drainage channels on the Sun Temple

Eastward view of Sleeping Ute Mountain

Driving out to Hovenweep the day after Mesa Verde

Being able to walk around by ourselves was such a welcome change from being around the hundreds of other tourists at Mesa Verde.

The ceremonial kiva with the summer and winter kachina figures laid out in brick

Further down the road is another site- the grain tower to the left of Ellie's shoulder.

This area is called the Painted Hand Pueblo

It's called the Painted Hand Pueblo because of these ancient hand outlines on the wall. 

Monument Valley

Mexican Hat Rock

Elephant Feet

200 million year old Mesozoic dinosaur tracks preserved in sandstone outside of Tuba City, Arizona

They're located on the Navajo Reservation.  A Navajo tour guide shows you around the flat and outlines and fills in tracks with a bottle of water.

To put it it context, this is the sign that directs you to these pre-historic wonders! (Got this pic from the web)

The Vermillion Cliffs were obscured by the drifting smoke from a forest fire on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

View off the Navajo Bridge at Lees Ferry- the northeastern beginnings of the Grand Canyon

A donut shop a block off of Fremont Street in Vegas might just have been worth the whole walk through Colorado and drive through the desert!