Theordore Roosevelt said in reference to Colorado, "The scenery bankrupts the English language." Well, I concur Teddy!
I am going to share some photos; however, they do not do what we saw justice.
Cactus!
Snozberries?
We happened upon Red Rocks Amphitheater. Pretty cool because Phish is there all weekend.
Huckleberry Finn
So we had been hiking for probably 2 hours just walking along with no worries and we happened across this runner who stopped and talked to us for a few minutes. "You know there are rattlesnakes, don't you?" "They just sit in the bushes right beside the trail and you need to be careful because they can strike out the length of their bodies." "If you get bitten, you need to run back to your car as fast as possible but just remember, the faster you run, the faster the venom is transported through your body." "Oh, and I saw a mountain lion out here a couple weeks ago. He was perched right up there on that mountain staring down at me. I ran to a pile of rocks and stood on them and tried to make myself look as big as possible but it didn't work. He was still stalking me, because you know, cats are predators and they like to isolate you right before they attack." Seeing the concerned look on my face she said, "don't worry, there are two of you, and plus, that mountain biker just went up there so he will get eaten first." "There are also coyotes out here and they hang out and prey on the mule deer and elk, they will come right up to you and you need to make as much noise as possible and throw things at them." After a couple more stories of couples getting mauled by mountain lions and such we bid a farewell and good luck and continued on our journey. Needless to say we were significantly more cautious after this conversation. We watched every step we took and scoured the hills for predators. Only a couple minutes after our conversation with said runner woman we saw something on the hillside.
Can you see the horns? We think it was a mule deer. It didn't move for 5 minutes while we looked at it to figure out if it was an animal. This photo was zoomed in quite a bit because we were very far away. If you zoom in closer you can clearly see it.
Clowning around at 6700 ft.
Last ascent to the summit
360 degree views, it was breathtaking
Denver
Closer of Denver
Matt at the summit: 6883 ft.
Right around this time I was leading the way on the trail and Matt yells, "snake!" I took off running and so did he. I didn't even realize it but I had stepped on a snake as I was walking. Matt said it was green and was from what he saw about 2' long and a couple inches in diameter. I hope I didn't hurt the poor thing.
So we decided to deviate from the trail we initially took and took this summit trail down. The descent down the mountain was fairly steep at parts with many loose rocks. It was actually easier to run down the mountain which is what we did. The trail that we took landed us in a residential neighborhood. Fortunately, it was located a block from where parked.
oops....
The hike was over 8 miles and took us about 4 hours with stopping for photos, lunch and conversation. It was a gorgeous day and it could not have been a more perfect first hiking experience. I love Colorado.
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