Saturday morning started off a little lazy and slow. Callie woke up kind of cranky, but was much happier after playing in a blanket fort built by her dad and reading some stories. And a nap. (I think the nap was the biggest help of all.) But once she woke up a second time and had some lunch in her belly, she was a right cheerful little gal and we decided to end our lazy streak and head out on a hiking adventure. I've been wanting to hike Shrine Ridge since we drove past the trailhead on the 4th of July during our Shrine Pass drive. A picture I saw in the Vail Daily later in the month convinced me that I simply had to hike this trail. And soon so I could see all the pretty wildflowers. Turns out we timed it just right. Minus the thousands of people and thousands of mosquitos, which were a little bit annoying, we saw thousands of gorgeous flowers and enjoyed a mighty fine hike in the mountains.
I've even got stats for this one:
Date hiked: 2 August 2014
Time started: 12:35 pm
Arrived at saddle: 1:25 pm
Left top of ridge: 2:05 pm
Back to car: 3:05 pm
Total time: 2 1/2 hours
Total mileage: 5.75 miles (according to my fitbit)
High point: 11,977 feet (according to the book - though I don't know if we were in the exact spot that she was in - but it's a good estimate anyway)
And now for the pictures, which is why you're here in the first place:
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| There were purple paintbrush! I've never seen that color before, but they were beautiful. |
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| Playing in the dirt at the saddle. |
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| Time for a rest from the pack at the saddle. |
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| Mount of the Holy Cross |
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| The clouds started to build up a bit while we sat at the top (not threatening - just beautiful). |
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| We decided to head on the left trail (southish) along the ridge to the high point of our hike. |
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| Looking back toward the saddle where the trails meet. Lots of people were taking this trail pictured (which was the right or northish trail) to the other ridge high-point. |
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| Group shot at the top (thanks to some friendly hikers) complete with cairn and Holy Cross in the background. |
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| Still some snow up there! |
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| Happy hikers. |
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| I was surprised to see a lot of little ponds dotting the high meadows. |
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| Copper Mountain ski runs in the background of this shot. |
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| Heading back down the ridge toward the saddle/junction. |
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| Deep snow and wildflowers. |
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| See what I mean by purple? There's no photoshopping of this pic! |
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| Poor girl looked so uncomfortable - and unsurprisingly didn't sleep well in this position, so Gregg ended up carrying her in his arms for the last little bit. |
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| Almost back to the car. |
That looked like a beautiful hike. How fun to be there at the peek of flower blooming. I have never seen purple paintbrush before either. That's a fun discovery. The pic of the deep snow is almost like a mini glacier :)
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