When we drove over Wolf Creek Pass in the motor home, we didn't stop for the views. We were intent on getting up and over the pass, and to get the motor home nestled in its spot at Alpine Trails campground in South Fork. Now we can explore the area in the car, including the lookout at Lobo Point near Wolf Creek Pass. It's a two-mile drive up a gravel road to get to this lookout, where we could hear the sounds of the engines working hard to get up that winding highway over Wolf Creek Pass. 
That was the first of the interesting sounds that we heard that day on the mountain. We also heard the sound of thunder and many raindrops on our car roof. We've been getting showers every day since we arrived in this area, and today was no exception. We sat in the car, looking at the beautiful mountains around us until the sound of the raindrops subsided.
Then it was time to start out on a short walk on top of those mountains. We love driving up to the top of passes to start hikes, as that means that the car did most of the elevation gain for us. We are already at 11,000 feet when we got started, so we are wearing jackets today.
Less experienced hikers might have been intimidated by the warning sign as we started onto the trail. Phrases like, "hazardous conditions" and "this is your decision point" and "beware of the following hazards" don't scare us. Bring on the hazards!
The one hazard that we don't like is the threat of falling dead trees. This part of the national forest has been decimated by the pine beetles. We saw more dead trees than live trees on this hike.
A short hike from our parking spot connected us to the Continental Divide Trail. Mark is standing by the post that announces we have made it through the hazardous conditions to join to this even more hazardous longer trail.
Now we will see the official insignia of this national scenic trail. We have seen it many times this summer as we climbed mountain passes along the continental divide.
A sign post at the trail head showed the 850-mile path that this scenic trail winds through the state of Colorado. The section we are hiking today is highlighted in the bright yellow square. In fact, the Continental Divide trail stretches all the way from Mexico into Canada, tracing the crest of the Rocky Mountains for a total length of 3,100 miles across five states.
Mark is still on the mend, so we decided not to hike all 3,100 miles today. In fact, we're just going a couple miles. We've chosen this little mountain summit as our destination for today.
We took pictures from both directions of our little summit. That's when we heard another interesting sound of the day--an elk bull bugling in the distance. It was certainly fun to hear that unusual sound that let us know that the elk rut season has begun.
We scanned the dead-tree mountain sides around us, but we never did spot the elk.
Shortly after that, we heard the next interesting sound. We've included a video file of what we heard, but we're not sure if it will work with all media. So if you can click on the icon below (and if it works), you'll hear the short recording that we captured on the hike.
As we looked at the hill below us, we could spot the movement of the animals that were making that sound. But these animals were too small for our camera phones to picture. Wouldn't you know it, this is the one time that we forgot to bring the good camera on a hike!
So Denisa hiked back to the car to get the camera, while Mark kept watching the tiny dots far below us. Once we had the camera, we could zoom in to see the coyotes now making themselves comfortable in the valley.
Even though it had sounded like a lot more voices, only three coyotes were actually singing today.
They were already tired this morning, as they laid down in the meadow and fell asleep while we were watching them.
As far away as we were, when we stood up to leave from our perch on top, they noted our movement. That's when they stood up and decided that it was time to leave as well.
Our hikes are shorter right now, but that doesn't mean they are less interesting. We're still enjoying God's wonders in the sights and sounds of the mountains around Wolf Creek Pass and South Fork, Colorado.
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