Our Mountain Hiking Adventures
Our Mountain Hiking Adventures
Click the links to view pictures from our mountain hikes.
We hiked numerous trails in Glacier National Park when we visited in July 2006. Located in northwestern Montana, Glacier was designated a national park in 1910. It encompasses about 1.4 million acres and is home to more than 50 glaciers and 200 lakes. Although we didn't see any bears, we did see fresh bear tracks on several trails.
Grinnell Glacier and Grinnell Lake. You can see this view only from a helicopter tour or the arduous hike that we took This white-tailed deer was unconcerned with us passing her on the trail St. Mary's Falls. The greenish blue water color is from "glacial flour", which is dust from the mountains still grinding away at each other and washed into lakes and rivers Bowman Lake The Twin Sisters, whose trail winds in and out of Rocky Mountain National Park, are just 11,428' in elevation, but the round trip hike is an invigorating 7.4 miles. Marty and I hiked to the north summit and back on my birthday ((8/26/05) in 4 hours. The Twin Sisters hosted the first fire lookout in RMNP, with its original structure built in the 1910s. Now the original stone house on the north summit houses radio equipment, which is used to locate lost hikers.
Big horn sheep below us as we near the summit At the summit of one of the Twin Sisters (Rocky Mountain National Park) on August 26.
Lake Estes is in the background.Mt. Meeker and Long's Peak from the Twin Sisters summit. On the way down, with Long's Peak in the background On 8/6/05, Marty and I hiked Quandary Peak (elev. 14,265'), which is about 9 miles south of Breckenridge. With an elevation gain of 3,450' and a round-trip trail length of 6.75 miles, it's considered one of Colorado's "easiest" 14ers. But with a false summit, steep switchbacks, and a trail that fades in and out through the talus, trust me, it ain't that easy!
Marty with Grays and Torreys Peaks in the background Quandary Peak Survey marker at the Quandary Peak summit At the summit, staying warm in our fleece and windbreakers. It took us 3 hours to reach the summit, and about 2-1/2 hours to come down. Mt. Bierstadt
Our first 14er hike of 2005: Mt. Bierstadt has a summit elevation of 14,060ft. The round-trip length of the trail is 6.5 miles with an elevation gain of 2,900ft. We did the hike 7/16/05; reaching the summit in 2:50, and back down in 2:30. Was it worth getting up at 3 a.m. to get on the trail at 6? Oh yeah!
Mt. Bierstadt, as seen from the trailhead on Guanella Pass out of Georgetown. Marty and Kristy at the summit Survey marker at the Mt. Bierstadt summit Grays Peak and Torreys Peak from Mt. Bierstadt summit (note the Mt. Bierstadt trailhead parking lot where we started our hike) Grays Peak and Torreys Peak
We tackled Grays Peak (14,270') and Torreys Peak (14,267'), our first 14ers, in one day--9/11/04. We reached Grays Peak first and an hour and a half later, Torreys. It was a 9-1/2 mile hike, with an elevation gain of 3,944' (including the extra 894' between summits), which we accomplished in 7-1/4 hours. Grays and Torreys are the only 14ers on the Continental Divide, by the way.
Grays (left) and Torreys (right) at the start of the hike At Grays Peak summit (Torreys Peak summit over Marty's right shoulder) At Torreys Peak summit (Grays Peak over Kristy's left shoulder) At the base of Torreys after the hike Mt. Audubon
Our first mountain hike was Mt. Audubon (8/14/04), in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. At 13,223', it was a nice warm-up to the 14ers to come. The hike was approximately 8 miles long and had an elevation gain of 2,723'. It took us 3-1/2 hours to reach the summit and about 3 hours to get back to the car.
At the summit On the way up, Long's Peak Ptarmigan on the trail Pike's Peak from the summit
