Colorado Mountain High........

Hiking at 9000' plus feet is not for sissies - and we managed without too much effort - but perhaps we have been acclimatized from our time in the mountains. Everest hikers spend a few days at base camp and then descend for a few days and then climb back higher, to acclimatize.  We drive. The quaking aspens above us were turning gold, but in this small valley in the Wet Mountains (not), along Ophir Creek, we kept trying to find where the creek began.  Small trout were in a few inches of water and darted away when Koa took a drink.  Obviously a favorite fishing spot for lots of people as the trail was very clear well back into the valley. 

What has always struck me as unusual about these mountains was the "groomed" aspect of the treed areas.  Not much underbrush, and the sense that it is one giant garden.  We climb  to 11,000', casually, as if it is an everyday thing, with the van struggling to breath, and drop to a measly 6,000' several times in a couple hours.  The roads are lined with a pure yellow bush, as if planted there, and we see fiery reds, golds and yellows of the aspen, poplars and bushes against the deep green of the firs and pines.  Each new turning, each new valley reveals  a breathtaking vista of what I call God's paintbrush.  We have been taking back roads instead of the major highways as we usually do and it feels luxurious to have the time to soak up this beauty.  We are on a schedule of sorts, but as my friend Debbie says, we change them all the time.  Or circumstances and people do, but we flex and the adventure gives us great surprises.

Back down the trail, these rude rock formations loomed over us.  Rude if you are a European and probably to the natives of history, carrying great mystical import.