Mt. Elbert

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In early July, Margo and I flew to Colorado to visit my sister Suzy and brother - in - law Steve as well as my friend Jim who we would hook up with later on in the trip. We started out by hopping onto I - 70. The minivan huffed and puffed up and up the long grade until we crossed the Continental Divide through the Eisenhower tunnel. After dropping down the other side we turned up a 2 lane highway that crossed over the divide once again and we turned into Leadville. After stocking up on a few essentials, (potato chips, lunchmeat) we continued on until we were at the Twin Lakes campground just as the late afternoon thunderstorm was ready to hit.

While Suzy and Steve tried to get their trailer parked and leveled, Margo and I set up the tent and after a while it became clear that the storm just wasn't going to happen this afternoon.


Steve,Suzy and Margo on the trail at Maroon Lake

The next morning we were driving over Independence Pass and down into Aspen. We headed up Maroon Creek and managed to just make it past the gate before it was closed. It was an interesting hike into the lakes underneath the Maroon Bells and as we were finishing our hike the skies really did cut loose with an impressive thundershower.


Margo finds the trail to Mt. Elbert

The following morning, Steve graciously agreed to wake up at 4:30 in the morning and drive us up to the start of the route up to Mt. Elbert. We started up the jeep road which took us up to a series of beaver ponds and a rustic sign that said "Mt Elbert". We headed up the hill and through an aspen grove. The skies were cloudless and Twin Lakes and the Arkansas river valley were far below us. We trudged along, up and up until there was no more up to go to. We sat on the summit rocks and ate our lunch, feeling that this was too easy. Soon we were joined by hordes of other hikers all out to conquer the highest peak in Colorado and the second highest peak in the lower 48. Some of them even had homemade signs to hold up as they posed for pictures.


Margo descends the summit ridge of Mt. Elbert

The skies couldn't decide if they were going to cut loose with a thundershower or just block the sun as we headed down the summit ridge toward the south summit of Mt. Elbert. The high ridges of the Colorado Rockies offer endless possibilities for alpine rambling. The thin air at 14,000 feet gave the wandering a somewhat dreamy quality.

We found a spur ridge that would take us down to the lower slopes of Elbert and we headed down, down, down past a number of old mines and tailings piles until we found an old jeep road that took us down to the aspen groves. We trudged out on the jeep road to find Suzy and Steve waiting for us at the parking lot wondering what happened to us since all of the hikers that they questioned hadn't seen us since we were on the summit. We celebrated our conquest that evening with Flying Dog ales and Steve's awesome spaghetti sauce that he had brought back from Michigan.

The next morning we drove back towards civilization with a stop off in Leadville to see the Fourth of July parade with all of its attendant festivities.


The festivities at Leadville