For our anniversary, I gave Mark 4 days at a condo in Avon (Near Vail) and an REI water bladder thing that you put in your pack. Our goal was to hike everyday, and experience the height of the wildflower season set against the craggy peaks. This first one is Columbines. They were in huge bouquets in the granite boulder field. Then sunflowers and lupine. With a little more snow you could see this is the mount of the Holy Cross. People used to make long pilgrimages up to see it, now people are more hedonistic, or have just realized you can't get closer to God by hiking to a cross in a mountain and there were back packers instead of pilgrims on the trail. They'd stand and talk to us with these huge packs on their backs and huge leg muscles to get the gear up the mountain. There are 52, 14 thousand foot peaks in CO. The Holy Cross is a 14,005 foot summit and we met a couple climbing up there to do their 47th summit. Did I mention we really liked going home to the condo and soaking our sore muscles in the hot tub? #4 is Indian paintbrush at sunset. #5 is an entire field of yarrow and just up the trail from this we saw a brown bear. I made lots of noise and walked quickly away but Mark had to stand within 20 feet to get a px. #6 is the wild man, not the wild flowers with his tricky walking stick waiting to trip the next unsuspecting hiker trying to pass him on the trail. The last one is dark purple monks hood. I feel so blessed to live in Colorado!
