As the header picture indicates I hiked to over 10,000 feet elevation on Thursday. That’s half way from Manitou Springs to the top of Pike’s Peak along Barr Trail. The cabin was bigger than I expected (not that I really knew what to expect).
I got a new camera this week so now I have an actual zoom. That means I can actually get reasonable pictures of the birds I see along the trail. Unfortunately few of the more interesting ones were out and I’m still learning how to use the camera effectively, but I did get a picture of this one:
This is the top of rocky mountain, I was taking pictures from right next to the pipe sticking out of the big rock with a crack through the middle (you might need to enlarge the picture to see that detail):
I also went up the incline the morning of July 4th:
They had it all decorated for the 4th of July with flags and such spread along the trail-side. The flagpole at the top is new – someone must have hiked it up earlier that morning. It was also the most crowded I’ve ever seen: the shuttle bus was standing room only and it looked like all parking up Ruxton Avenue was full at around 8:00 am. It turns out 8:00 isn’t a great time to be hiking it because there’s practically no shade on the trail itself and it’s starting to get hot. Considering the sun comes up at like 5:45 it’s probably well enough lit at 6:00 and doubtless much cooler.