Yesterday we went on a long Sunday drive after church. We started by traveling to Leadville and driving around Turquoise Lake, then ended up heading over Mosquito Pass, a rocky, unpaved road that goes from Leadville to Alma. It turns out that this road is actually the highest in the US (a through road that is) topping out at 13,185 ft.
Kate and I had the day off on Thursday, so we took a hike to Torreys and Grays, two 14ers side by side and separated by a short saddle.
Here you can see Grays on the left and Torreys on the right. It’s an optical illusion from this angle, but Grays is actually the taller of the two by 3 feet.
Kate hiking up Grays. You can just see the trail in the valley that we hiked up.
Us at the top of Grays before we head off to Torreys.
Kate didn’t have fun going down the snowy ridge of Grays.
In the saddle.
The top of Torreys.
A nice pano from the top of Torreys. (easy to make using hugin)
That’s Rocky Mountain National Park. Our plan was to take a drive through the park then onto Estes, but mother nature had a different plan.
We woke up Saturday morning to a nice little blizzard… in the middle of AUGUST!!! By late morning the little snow we got was starting to melt and we were on our way to RoMo, but when we got there, the Trail Ridge Road was closed due to snow!! (The Trail Ridge Road is one of the highest paved roads in the world, and the only road connecting the west side of the park to the east.)
So we made due and went on a little hike and got a chance to see some great wildlife including 3 moose (one bull and two cows).
(this is a view of Quandary as we left in the morning)
This ended up being just a short scouting trip. Our friends from KS, the Wonnells are coming to visit us the first week of Sept, so we’ll have more time to explore the park (and do some camping).
The whole Sawyer/Sweigart clan came to visit us in the mountains for a week. Despite the gloomy weather, we experiences several fun hikes full of wildflower covered meadows, rocky mountains, abandoned mines and raging waterfalls. Here’s some choice shots from the week:
We had a lot of fun exploring our mountain, but I think Maddox enjoyed it more than any of us. Alyssa posted a poem that he wrote, entitled “Mountain Friend“… it’s a must read.
And these are just the tip of the iceburg, so go see all the rest of the photos from our family vacation in the mountains.
Because we’ve had family in town, we weren’t able to watch it… but last night our friend Tim Oliphant (from Kanakuk) just won the whole enchalada on the American Gladiators! Well done Tim.
August 25th, 2008 
