Once I finally got up, I got to preparing for the focus of the day: hiking to the head of the Colorado River. I figured I had seen it in the Grand Canyon and it's such a vital part of the Southwest that it was only appropriate to see where it trickles out of the mountains.
Since it was going to be a nice long hike, I took my time to make some hearty oatmeal for breakfast and then headed to the trail. On the trail, there were plenty of sights to see. Mostly I had an opportunity to experiment with macro photography of all the colourful wildflowers and funky fungi dotting the landscape. While hunting for flowers to photograph, I stumbled across some delicious wild raspberries. It reminded me of when I was a wee lad hiking around Charleston Lake eating wild blueberries. So much flavour in something so small!
The trail continued up past Lulu City, an old abandoned frontier town. There were a few ruins still visible but mostly, it was just the Colorado River meandering through a tranquil meadow. As I rose out of the meadow, I headed towards Yellowstone Canyon. What's with these places that name themselves after other natural wonders? In Yellowstone, there was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and here, in Rocky Mountain, there's Yellowstone canyon. It's so weird!
Anyway, I went up to the canyon enjoying the scenery, had some food and headed back towards the trailhead. Unfortunately, at this point, my leg was starting to flare up even though the total hike was only going to be 9 miles. I really couldn't do much except grit through it since I wasn't thinking and didn't bring my IBProufen with me. At least the way back was eventful. I managed to see a marmot, a female moose and a gorgeous elk bull.
After the hike, I went up to the Alpine Visitor Center since I hadn't decided yet if I was going to take the road through the park tomorrow to get to Denver or just drive down to I-70. I was undecided because there was supposed to be construction on the road with delays up to an hour and I didn't know if could afford the time, so I wanted to make sure that I was at least able to see the peaks and the highest paved road in North America at just over 12k feet.
The visitor center was just closed, but the view was spectacular, just like so much on this trip. I was able to walk up a small hill to get even a better view and took some stunning pictures, that really couldn't capture the beauty seen by the naked eye. I was amazed not only by the natural scenery, but also the number of people up there who had come from the eastern side of the park. Well, maybe I wasn't too surprised, it was nothing like Yellowstone which was a zoo. Anyway, before getting to Rocky, I figured that I would try the western side since it was a weekend and there'd be a better chance of getting a site seeing as how the park is so close to Boulder and Denver. Looking out on the masses of cars trying to get down the mountain at the end of the day, I was really happy with my decision. I was able to enjoy the park relatively undisturbed.
On my way down the mountain, I stopped off at a pull out to get some pictures of the sun setting over the Neversummer mountains. I know I've probably overused this adjective on this trip, but really, it was spectacular!
After eating dinner, I tried to stargaze again. I lasted longer than I did yesterday, but it was cloudier so it was harder to see the stars through the gaps. Even still, it's at these times when I'm reminded of why I think space is so amazing and how I want to make it my career. It's too bad though that the meteors were just getting started by the time I was too sleepy and had to leave for another cold night.
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