Sunday, July 4, 2010

Blanca Peak 14,345' and Ellingwood Point 14,042'

Finally, we get to do Blanca Peak! I have been wanting to do it ever since I learned there was a peak named after my Grandmother. She was a very beautiful and special women! It's a cloudy one today. Hopefully, it clears up. We saw some deer this morning too.
Nice picture of the early morning sky!
Getting out of the trees and into the rocky terrain. What a nice waterfall!
Still cloudy, but here I come. It actually rained last night while we were sleeping.

This is looking back at the valley where we started.

Here we are at the top of Blanca Peak!! Not many pictures because it is completely in clouds, and our hike was in clouds! Shawn said to me "...we have so many pictures of Blanca Peak from all angles from the other mountains we have climbed, now, that we are on Blanca Peak, we can't see anything!..." Oh, well... we made it! Thanks for watching over us Grandma Blanca!

It does try to clear up. This is Little Bear which is partly covered in clouds. You may recall we did that about a month ago!
Here is another picture of Blanca Peak. The top is still in the clouds, but now you can see a closer view of the ridge we had to hike/climb up.
This is a picture of Huerfano Peak (on left) and Lindsey Peak (on right). We did those last year.
Here I am at the top of Ellingwood Point! We have now done all the mountains in this area!
Here is Shawn and I at the top. See the valley below us.
As we head down Ellingwood Point, we see climbers in the distance heading to the Point. Do you see them?
And guess what, one of the climbers is Dave... He was supposed to hike with us, but decided to sleep in. He saw us coming down as he was heading up. Can you find us in the pic?
Now, the clouds have moved and we can see all of Little Bear.
Can you see all the lakes we passed? We passed like 5 lakes on our way to the top. Now, we get to go back and see them.
One last look at Ellingwood. As you can see we are back on the road and heading to camp.
We passed a pretty waterfall. When we came to this area a month ago, this was ALL covered in SNOW!!!
After about an hour nap, we packed up to head back to the car and go home.
I have been hiking since I was like 14, and never seen a bear in the wild. Shawn would say that is a good thing, which is probably true, but I have always wanted to see one. Well, I finally saw one. He was eating something (looked like he had grass), but probably looking for fish in the mountain stream. He was a good ways away, so I guess that's the best way to see one.
This is when I think he noticed we were watching him.
Here it looks like he might be yawning. Who knows?, but soon after this, he ran off up into the woods. I bet my Dad is reading this and wishing we had a 44 magnum just in case. No worries... Dad.
That's the end! What an adventure!

1 comment:

  1. Kathryn, as always, very pretty pics, although I still do not know how you both can climb these mountains. As far as I can see you two must go through very precarious situations, be very careful and also w/the bears...If he is hungry and come towards you, you definitely wished you had a 44 magnum to protect yourself.

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