The Friday before last (before I went on vacation) I left work early intending to hike to the top of Mount Manitou. It had been raining and before I left work looked like there were dark clouds still moving in so I took my rain jacket on the hike. Naturally, the sun was out by the time I got 3/4ths of the way to the top, but at least it wasn’t crowded at all.
For the first time I actually packed a snack to eat at the top. That made me friends:
The ground squirrels (not a chipmunk – chipmunks stripes extend across their head) were actually fighting over who got to come and beg for food. I didn’t share but even with me holding it close and swatting at any critter that came close enough to make a grab for my cliff bar I got a number of close-up pictures.
Once I’d rested and snacked I made another trip to the top of Eagle’s Nest:
Garden of the Gods is left of center along the line of shadow from clouds, and the clearing at the top of the incline is to the far right of the picture.
After I’d found a way back down (cautiously, there were indications that a bear had been there recently) I headed up Barr trail and took the turnoff to the Old Fremont Experimental Forest. The experimental forest is a site where they experimented on what trees would grow best in the Rocky Mountains and how best to get trees started and nurture them with reforestation in mind. Here’s a picture of the site as it stands today:
Past the forest station it should have been a straight shot uphill to the top of Mount Manitou, mostly along what I’m guessing are forest service roads. Unfortunately I had no map or data signal for my phone and I picked the wrong slope to climb when the road turned away. I didn’t see any other trails (or people, it’s apparently not a well-traveled area) so I just hiked uphill until I got to the local maximum:
The point labeled “Local Max” in the “Misc” layer is where I ended up. It’s either an unnamed bump on the ridge or it’s part of Rocky Mountain. Unfortunately it’s covered in trees and one of the few things visible was Mount Manitou in the distance:
I’ll have to try again sometime soon – I was out of time that evening and didn’t have time to explore more.