Day 56 - Garden of the Gods

By the end of today, I would drive east past the front range mountains of Colorado and then north through Colorado Springs, Denver and Boulder, on my way to Rocky Mountain National Park. My first stop was Garden of the Gods, a geologic-wonder of a city park in Colorado Springs.

The red slabs of rock at Garden of the Gods were tilted from horizontal to vertical at some point and then rain filed them down to the impressive shapes they take on today. This beautiful scenic city park is free and in the middle of a prominent residential area. I hiked the outside loop trail for views from above, before hiking down amid the rock slabs. The sun was out and it was awesome.

I then drove to two other side attractions: one called Siamese Twins and the other Balancing Rock. I especially liked the twins as you could see Pikes Peak, a famous 14er mountain in Colorado, framed behind them. There is a road that goes all the way up Pikes Peak but the last six out of nineteen miles were closed due to snow.

After the strange-is-beautiful rock park, I drove to downtown Colorado Springs for a brief drive-thru before heading north to Denver. I arrived in Denver just at rush hour but luckily traffic wasn't horrible. I got out and walked around downtown for thirty minutes, walking by the Capitol and Art Museum, before driving more north to Boulder. Boulder is a college town set up towards the mountains. I stopped for a fresh, hot seafood soup, which seemed to help my lingering head cold. Then I got back in the van and drove on to Rocky Mountain National Park.

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Day 168 - JMT Pinchot Pass

The mountains appeared like sand dunes in the soft early light. We drank our coffee, packed up our gear and set off up the hill toward Pinchot Pass. Not a mile up the trail, we encountered another sensational High Sierra lake, Lake Marjorie, and the peaceful reflections off the lake's surface. Mountains of white and red and grey and black surrounded us-- all surfaces seemingly from another planet, but welcoming us this morning on Earth. Jeff and Steve and a lady named Tara joined us at the picturesque summit of Pinchot Pass. We remained there for a complete hour, enjoying stories of hiking triumph and Jeff's difficult but rewarding experiences as a search and rescue captain. Reluctant to leave the 12,000 foot pass, but begged forward by the slowly descending trail, we hiked on. The wonderful landscape in the background, with layers of blues, and browns and whites, appeared like an Ansel Adams masterpiece, and the trail a magical doorway to its frame. The sce

Day 171 - JMT Guitar Lake

Wow, was it cold this morning. After waking up and eating breakfast, we packed up quickly and found this scenic sunspot to warm our bones. We had a short eight mile hike to Guitar Lake today, the last viable campsite before the five mile hike to the 14,505 foot-high Mount Whitney summit. We stopped at this lovely meadow and looked for bears. We only saw deer but were able to enjoy the incredible peace of the far mountain range. Steady hiker traffic, the most of the entire trip, including one group of twelve elder hikers, passed us as we rested, and jumped! Views of Mount Whitney finally came into view at Timberline Lake, a quaint lake where camping was unfortunately forbidden. We passed a group of twenty Taiwanese hikers. The summit of Mount Whitney looked heavily defended when viewed from below. We were going to wake up tomorrow at 230am and hike up to the summit for sunrise-on-the-top-of-the-world*. The thought of this dark task was a bit foreboding. We made it to Guitar Lake by

Day 150 - Big Sur Hearst Castle

Big Sur coastline continues in its beauty. Elephant seals practice sparring. They make a snore-like belly belch sound while sparring and then after ten seconds later lie back down to snooze on the sand. The Hearst Castle is an incredibly luxurious complex on top of a high hill overlooking the ocean and coastal mountains. The feel was Mediterranean, royal and magical. The outdoor pool had a Roman feel-- on a hill, in California. Strangely awesome. But the indoor pool was the tops-- like a Turkish kings dream moment come to life. I found a beautiful campground close to the castle and stopped for the night.

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