Last weekend Ryan and I FINALLY got up in the mountains to do some exploring. We had a fabulous day!
A lake along the way up to the peak.
Lots of pretty views on the way up.
A little hiking.
All the wildflowers were blooming. They were so pretty poking out all over the place.
I thought this tree stump looked cool. So we went closer to look at it. Ryan knocked on it to be funny. A little chipmunk came zipping out, yelling at him. I think he almost wet his pants. It was pretty funny.
The treeline looked cool. The trees just all of a sudden stopped on a pretty clear line. I would guess around 11,000 feet.
Another lake closer to the top. The terrain was so strange up here. It's called Alpine Tundra. It was a very unique landscape.
Ryan likes to jump around on the rocks. Can you tell?
We saw lots of wildlife, which was very fun. I've been really wanting to see bighorn sheep. I had a male in mind, but this herd of females and babies was neat too. I guess the males pretty much wander by themselves.
These Yellow Bellied Marmots were pretty cute. We saw many among the rocks on our trip.
They were surprisingly quite large.
Up at the top! It is AMAZING what 14,000ft elevation does to your body. I consider myself in fairly good shape and our house is about 6,200ft above sea level. But up here, just a slow walk made my heart feel like it was going to pound out of my chest and my chest was so tight, it was hard to take a deep breath. When you were actually able to take a deep breath, it didn't feel like anything came in. All of this made you a little light headed and dizzy. It was definitely an experience. I sure wouldn't want to spend an extended period of time up there though.
The view was breathtaking though. It was amazing to have a 360 degree view looking DOWN at all the mountain peaks with snow on them.
Unfortunately a storm started coming through and obscured a lot of the view.
We were definitely up IN the clouds. It was really weird. I really had to force myself to get down. I could have stood there all day watching the clouds blow up against us and up over us. It was very cool. But on the peak of the highest mountain is NOT where you want to be in a thunderstorm. It started hailing on our way down. I just kept praying it stayed small and we didn't start getting pelted with golf balls. Luckily it did, but that made it even colder.
The road back down. I was VERY glad Ryan was driving. It was a little nerve racking at times.
We came across a pretty waterfall on our way back down the mountain.
We had an absolutely FABULOUS time. It was so nice to actually get out and see some of this beautiful state that we live in.
We saw lots of wildlife, which was very fun. I've been really wanting to see bighorn sheep. I had a male in mind, but this herd of females and babies was neat too. I guess the males pretty much wander by themselves.
These Yellow Bellied Marmots were pretty cute. We saw many among the rocks on our trip.
They were surprisingly quite large.This guy(can you see the little dot on top of the rock?) was on the highest rock on the peak of the mountain. I guess he thought it was a pretty cool view from 14,200ft too!
He looked pretty funny just chillin' up there.
The mountain goats were really fun to watch too. We came across a few little groups of them.
The babies were SO cute!
We also saw a few big herds of Elk, but we were too far away to get a good picture.
Up at the top was SO cold. I just couldn't bring myself to wear
pants, when it was over 90 at home, but I sure could have used them up here. It was COLD. The storm coming in didn't help.
Up at the top! It is AMAZING what 14,000ft elevation does to your body. I consider myself in fairly good shape and our house is about 6,200ft above sea level. But up here, just a slow walk made my heart feel like it was going to pound out of my chest and my chest was so tight, it was hard to take a deep breath. When you were actually able to take a deep breath, it didn't feel like anything came in. All of this made you a little light headed and dizzy. It was definitely an experience. I sure wouldn't want to spend an extended period of time up there though.
The view was breathtaking though. It was amazing to have a 360 degree view looking DOWN at all the mountain peaks with snow on them.
Unfortunately a storm started coming through and obscured a lot of the view.
We were definitely up IN the clouds. It was really weird. I really had to force myself to get down. I could have stood there all day watching the clouds blow up against us and up over us. It was very cool. But on the peak of the highest mountain is NOT where you want to be in a thunderstorm. It started hailing on our way down. I just kept praying it stayed small and we didn't start getting pelted with golf balls. Luckily it did, but that made it even colder.
The road back down. I was VERY glad Ryan was driving. It was a little nerve racking at times.
We came across a pretty waterfall on our way back down the mountain.
We had an absolutely FABULOUS time. It was so nice to actually get out and see some of this beautiful state that we live in.While we were out exploring, Nana took the kids bowling. I think they had an equally fantastic day.
CUTE!
CUTE!
2 comments:
What an adventure. The pictures you took are beautiful. The scenary is breathtaking. We'd love to get up there for ourselves sometime---but we'd probably both have heart attacks and die. LOL! The pictures of the kids are darling! Love and miss you!
I love those two sooooo much! Caitlin and Caleb were so "fun" to watch...Caitlin is a great "big" sister...even if she thinks Caleb is the "baby"!!!! She was such an encouragement to Caleb, it was a side of her I don't see too often!!! My grand babies are growing up!!! boo! hoo! I love all of you and miss you even more!
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