Ten 14ers and one 13er in 10 days. Out of those ten days two were resting days which means three of eight hiking days we did two peaks. Right now I feel extremely good but I don’t think I could have done many more without some more rest at this point. My body wants to do something else.
The last five 14ers were Mt Harvard and Mt Columbia (one day), Mt Yale, La Plata and Mt Elbert. Mt Elbert is the highest of the 14ers and the highest peak in Colorado and the Rocky Mountains. It was ironically the easiest one and had the biggest crowd on top. There were hikers on all peaks we visited but usually 5-10 others while on Mt Elbert there were probably about 20 and we met many still on their way up as we hiked down.
At Mt Harvard early in the morning we saw two mountains goats. This one was a bit scruffy looking but very cute.
Driving through an aspen forest to reach Mt Elbert trailhead.
We were surprised as to how few foreigners we met in the mountains. On ten peaks we only met three foreigners, two from the Czech Republic and one from Canada. All of these though live in the States at the moment as do we. I guess that we can now say that the international tourists does not make it to these wonderful areas. They are missing out on something! Apparently the tourists go to Rocky Mountain National Park and Mt Evans where you can drive all the way to the top of the mountain. It seems a lot of people from the cities in Colorado do weekend trips up to the mountains to go hiking, biking, rafting and 4 wheel driving. There was a very impressive traffic jam coming back to Denver on Sunday afternoon as we were leaving to go to Utah. Luckily we were going in the right direction.
Leaving the mountains for other adventures.