Thursday, July 24, 2008

As long as we're out.....



Denver is a sweltering 98 degrees.
Let's go to Mount Evans!








The buffalo herd on I-70 is always on the other side of the highway. Always.


The temperature at the base of Mount Evans is 72 degrees.





The top of the tree line.







The alpine tundra. There are no photos of the long and winding road. The long and winding road with no guardrail, crumbling edges, and a steep steep drop down the mountainside. (Lots of opportunies for throwing down one's foe and smiting their ruin upon the mountainside. If one were so inclined).






Mountain goats. Not the most cooperative subjects. The brochure said not to let them stick their heads in the car. No worries. They weren't interested anyway.
But the tourists were interested - traffic stopped so people could take photos. Since we had to stop, I took some too.






Summit Lake, about 12,000 feet about sea level. It was in the upper 50's, with a chilly breeze. Notice the snow in the background. July 21st. Snow. Also green green grass with lots of tiny wildflowers.









The tundra gives way to barren rocks. Cool, huh?









If you look behind me, you can see Denver. About 75 miles away, about 9000 feet down, and nearly 50 degrees hotter than the summit.






4 comments:

Bridgete said...

Hm, I didn't picture you as a blonde.

I realize that's random.

Anyway, this looks like such a fun thing to do, especially on a hot day. =)

CSD Faux Finishing said...

(Lots of opportunies for throwing down one's foe and smiting their ruin upon the mountainside. If one were so inclined)

MWAHAHAHA!!!!!

Ok, with that out of the way...

Glad you posted the pic of yourself, its nice to see your pretty face girl! It took me a while to put my face out there too, there might be 4 photos of myself I actually say "eh, not that bad" about lol

What a gorgeous trip! The snowy mountain in July is amazing but you are about 10k feet up. Were you freezing in that T? Did you hike at all or drive up? thanks for sharing these, so breathtaking :)

pastrywitch said...

Not a natural blonde - it's camoflage for prematurely graying brown :). So, there you go.
Yes, I was pretty darn chilly - it was a spur of the moment thing going up there - we were already out and I mentioned wanting to go to Mt. Evans sometime. And so we did. No jackets, no nothing. It's possibe to hike up, but we drove up to the summit, with a few stops for wandering along the way.

disabled account said...

can't go to 14,000 feet. i get sick that high up. i learned that the one time i went to leadville.
i could go to 12,000 and probably be okay though. i know, quite ironic for a girl that used to live at 10,000 feet.

i don't know why, but those photos made me want a pic-a-nic.