Day #4 in Colorado

Our 4th day in Colorado proved to be the most exhausting!! A group of us went to the West Peak of the Spanish Mountains to hike to the top. This is something that Roger's family has done several times and I thought this would be a good little work out and some beautiful scenery. Well, the beautiful scenery part was right.....

We started the day out at 8:30 am and parked our vans part-way up the mountain. We expected to be back in time for lunch at the lodge. HA! The sign said 2.5 miles to timberline and another 1 mile to the peak. That didn't sound too bad....

The 2.5 miles trail up the mountain to timberline was not too bad - we did have to stop occasionally to catch our breath because it was 13,000 ft elevation. This is the view of the mountain in the background that we are hiking to the top of - it looks pretty far away, doesn't it? Well, it was!!

The kids were thrilled to find some patches of snow to play in and even to eat some of it to quench our parched lips! We soon found out that we didn't bring nearly enough water with us, so the snow came in handy.

Once we reached timberline, some of the younger kids stayed back behind with Grandpa while the rest of us hiked up to the peak. Now, when I say hike, I don't mean a leisurely stroll up the mountain. No, I mean, climbing up sharp loose rocks on all fours, hoping you don't slip back down too far! Did I mention that we didn't bring enough water? I guess it would have helped if all the water bottles would have made it up the mountain, instead of in someone's backpack that stayed behind!!!

This is the view of us climbing up to the peak - the top doesn't seem too far away, until you work really hard for 30 minutes and the top still looks just as far as it did last time!!! By the time we finally made it to the top (Brittany was the first one of the whole group to make it to the top) it was about 12 noon - and we are supposed to be back for lunch? Ain't gonna happen. The few snacks we brought along weren't really enough for all the work we were doing. You would think that going back down the mountain would be alot easier - WELL, IT WASN'T!! We slipped more going down and it still took us at least an hour to get back to timberline, at which point we were all utterly exhausted, thirsty and extremely hungry - and we STILL had to walk another 2.5 miles back to the vans! Let me just say that there were a few tears, muttering under your breath and many times of wanting to just give up. Finally, at 3 pm we stumbled back to the vans - so much for being back for lunch! So, what was going to take like 2-3 hours, turned into 6 1/2 hours of grueling work!

Don't ask me how I managed to smile for this picture. That is the mountain in the background that we just climbed!! And, I just want to know, what part of this activity was supposed to be FUN?

The is the view from on top of the mountain at almost 15,000 ft. There were many of these rock towers all the way up the mountain.