Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

We spent the w.e. of August 14-15 in Denver and took the opportunity to drive to Estes Park and hike Rocky Mountain National Park. A ranger told us that the park is the fifth most visited national park in the country. And it happened to be free w.e. of the year! As you can image, it was jam packed. Even after hiking in close to 3 miles, there were still plenty of people around. We pushed just a little further in and found a lake that we had almost to ourselves. These two pictures are from Alberta Falls, a gushing, thundering body of water.

This is Jewel Lake, just past Mills Lake. It had nice sandy beaches all around it, made for sunning and relaxing. Notice that the water is crytal clear, a rare sight.

Fuller view of this high alpine lake. The sad part of our visit was that many, many of the pine trees in the park are dead, attacked by the pine bark beetle. Although not visible on this picture, it makes for a green and very brown landscape. Apparently, the winters have been too warm so that the beetles survive the winters. It takes 4-5 days of zero (Fahrenheit) degree weather to kill the beetles and keep the trees healthy.

Stewart Lake, Pecos Wilderness

Our friend Mark invited us to a get away w.e. in the Pecos Wilderness in the Sangre de Christo Mountains, northeast of Santa Fe. He rented a rustic cabin (with all the necessary comforts) with a great deck overlooking the canyon. It was made for relaxation and good conversation. However, the cabin was perched on top of a cliff. To reach the cabin, Marc needed to drive full speed up a narrow, winding dirt road... in the dark as it was already 9:30 pm. The picture does not give a good feeling of how steep it really was. If you stopped, you could not get started again because the tires could not get enough traction.

On Saturday, we hiked to Stewart Lake, a high alpine lake. Starting from Cowles campground, we hiked through a little over 4 miles of conifer and aspen groves high above Winsor Creek, to reach a clearing and small lake before finally arriving at our destiny.

We had company at the lake; while eating lunch we watched a young couple on the other side of the lake, brave enough to dip into the icy waters. The mountain gods were on our side... no summer storms.

Thank you Marc for a great w.e.

San Miguel White Water Rafting

Here we are posing before the big adventure. This was a technical class 3 trip. The water level was lower than expected thus causing us to have to dodge rocks and tree branches. Our guide had to jump out of the raft a couple of times to pull the raft off the rocks. Sorry no pictures. The camera was safely burried at the bottom of a waterproof bag that Marlin brought.

Woods Lake Adventure

After hiking Lone Cone Trail for over an hour without a clear map, none of us could agree on how to find the elusive lake. Katy argued that the lake had to be close to the campground since it was named after the lake and she was right. Only is was at the opposite side of the camp. Finally, Katy and Marlin set of in one direction and Patty, Geoff, Jim and I in another. Here is Geoff taking a picture to show that we did find the lake. The camp hosts had told Jim that there was a trail going around the lake. Only 3 miles long she said.

Although it was almost 5 pm and we had no food or warm clothes with us, we decided to chance it and hike around the lake, taking our time for pictures.

After some steep hiking and bushwacking, here we are, discovering that there is no trail around the lake and that it has several inlets,

with a large marshy meadow. Too far to trek all around. So we ended up taking off our boots and wading through the mud. Made it back in about an hour and 40 minutes. Not bad after all.

Dragonfly Hike

For our first hike of the w.e., we set of to find Woods Lake via Lone Cone Trail. It was a gorgeous hike whether we looked up or down: aspen,

dragonflies by the hundreds - just a little difficult to capture in film ...

... Colorado peaks at the horizon....

and wild flowers every where. This is Indian Paintbrush. There were also lots of white and blue Columbine and a few fire cracker Columbine.

Telluride Camping Trip

Arrival at Woods Lake Campground by Placerville, CO, about 10 miles west of Telluride for our 4th of July w.e. From left to right, Jim, Patty, Geoff, Marlin and Katy. We all have smiles on our faces looking forward to an excitimg 3 days together. The campground was great. I named it the Zen campground. The sites were impeccably clean and raked!

A dinner of good cheer, fun, laughter...

...singing...

and pumping river water to keep up the supplies.

Just for Abi...

We found a few friends on our walks, a seagull....

... koi at the Japanese Tea Garden...

... a duck begging for food at the Japanese Teahouse... Abi, what does the duck say?....

... and turtles in Golden Gate Park. Do you see turtles at your park?

San Francsco Ramblings

Highlights of our ramblings included riding the San Francisco trolley and visiting Coit tower on Telegraph Hill. If you squint, you can see the tower in the background. Coit Tower is worth a visit for its spectacular views of both the city, Golden Gate Bridge and all of the Bay area, and its depression-era public art works murals painted in 1934 in the Diego Rivera social style.




Couldn't miss a walk down Lombard street.... or...

dinner at Fishermen's Warf.

We finished our visit with the Castro and Mission districts. The Castro district is the center of the gay community with a memorial to Harvey Milk, the first openly gay city supervisor who was shot in 1978. The old hispanic Mission district is known for its many colorful murals. Note Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Japanese Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA

As part of our visit to San Francisco, we strolled amids the cherry trees, flowering azaleas, oriental magnolias, Japanese maples, dwarf pines, cedars and cypresses in the Japanese Tea Garden in the middle of Golden Gate Park. The garden is an oasis of calm and quiet that provides respite from the bustling city. Definitely one of the highlights of our visit.

Japanese black pine, the oldest plant in the garden, brought over from Japan as a potted plant over in the early 1900's.

Cranes and stone pagoda.

Mount Taylor Attempt

Last Sunday we attempted to snowshoe up to Mount Taylor with our firends Katy and Marlin. The trailhead, however, was about 5 miles up on a snowy road that proved too much even for an all-wheel drive car! We ended up digging out the car a couple of times before deciding to just enjoy our day and snowshoe around the area, which was quite nice even if it didn't have the vistas of Mount Taylor.

This is were a rabbit got picked up by a hawk, we think...

How do you eat lunch without going through the trouble of taking of your snowshoes? You recline like a Roman at a feast!

Katy and Marlin enjoying a few moments of well deserved rest.

Sandia Mountains Boundary Loop

This hike was suggested by our friends Katy and Marlin. It starts at the turn off to La Luz Trail and makes a loop into Jaral Canyon. It is a short trail, 2.5 miles round trip, perfect for a winter mid-day hike. Although the slopes look bare in the picture above, we did encourter a fair amount of snow that allowed us to try out our cleats. Pyramid Peak is in the background.

The return loop followed a ridge with spectacular views and steep canyon walls.