We're in Colorful Colorado!

After leaving the west entrance of Dinosaur National Monument, we pointed the motor home to the east. We had spent a full day in that interesting park, so the light was low when we crossed the state border into Colorado. With the impending storms nipping at our heels, the sign into colorful Colorado wasn't too full of color.

We camped at a city park in Maybelle, Colorado to wait out the predicted two days of rain. With electric hook-ups and a pretty good phone signal, it provided a rest day to get plans made for the rest of our trip. We didn't take even one picture in Maybelle because it really wasn't very picturesque. One interesting thing is that they have a very small school where one teacher attends to everyone in grades kindergarten through sixth grade. We are talking about a VERY small town.

After the rain storms cleared, we headed further east towards the more picturesque parts of this beautiful state. As we gained elevation, we could look down on mountain lakes below us. Now we feel like we have really been welcomed to colorful Colorado!

We drove up and up, going from an elevation of 5,922 feet in Maybelle to an elevation over 9,300 feet at Rabbit Ear's Pass. We are parked in "The Meadows"--a no-hook-up forest service campground situated on the plateau of that pass. Being at such a high elevation, we enjoyed very cool temperatures during our three-night stay.

They had snow here on the pass in early September. We were in no hurry to get out to go hiking, content to let it warm up a little. This morning we are on the Windy Ridge Trail, just a few miles from our campground. It took us up on a ridge (that was surprisingly not windy) to see the other 10,000-foot mountains around us.

We wandered off the ridge trail and down to see Lake Agnes, where too many homes have been built to qualify this as a wilderness area.

Then we had a decision to make. Do we head back along the same trail, or can we make this into a loop trail? With the help of the GPS to point us in the correct general direction, we started up the mountain through a forest littered with fallen trees.

We happened upon this little mountain lake that probably hasn't seen human footsteps in a long time.

It wasn't the easiest "trail" back, but Denisa always likes a loop hike where we don't have to repeat the same scenery. While we're waiting to catch our breath during this steep section with lots of logs to step over, we should point out that Mark picked out that bright orange shirt on purpose this morning. We found out that certain hunting seasons have started here in the mountains, and we don't want to be mistaken for a bear or elk right now.

Sometimes our bushwhacking took us to dead ends. This innocent-looking tall grass actually hides a stream. Mark is balanced on a log, trying to decide if there is a way across. Nope!

But we eventually did rejoin our trail, making for a successful 7.7-mile loop up here on Rabbit Ears Pass. We met some hunters on the trail, asking if we had seen elk. Except for one elk carcass in the woods, it didn't look like great hunting territory. But we explained that we had bushwhacked off the trail. The hunters looked at Denisa incredulously and asked Mark, "Where did you get her?"  We're not sure if that was a compliment or not.

We love our time in the mountains, and we think colorful Colorado is a beautiful place to wander through God's wonders!