We are enjoying the cool temperatures here at Vallecito Resort, at an elevation of 7,500 feet. But we're going to hike even higher today, on the Vallecito Trail.
After driving the car further up into the mountains to the trail head, we started on the hike that took us up into the Weminuche wilderness.
This was an unusual trail, in that a couple times it split into two trails. Horses were supposed to go one way, while hikers went another.
We're pretty sure that's because much of the hiker trail is out on rocky ledges with sheer drop offs. We're not sure if a horse and rider could even fit on some of these narrow ledges. During this high ledge part of the trail, the Vallecito River is running beside us, but so far below that we can't even see it.
In other parts of the trail, the river ran right beside us. Then it was easy to take great pictures of the clear water and the big boulders that Mark usually loves to climb. Denisa convinced him to sit on one of those boulders for the picture below.
A few flowers are still blooming along the trail, including these tiny white straw flowers.
We also found a few purple asters still blooming here. These flowers are everywhere, and normally Denisa wouldn't stop to picture such a common flower. But she was recently on a Colorado wildflower web site, trying to learn more of the names of the flowers we see. 
She found several purple asters, but it was particularly interesting to find that one of them was named the Engelmann aster. Just like we have found very common Engelmann spruce on the mountains tops and Engelmann cactus in the desert, the botanist in the family has also named an aster.
The second half of the hike was a nice walk along a babbling brook. With little elevation gain, this is one of the easiest hikes we've done in a while.
Even though the trail actually goes on for many miles, we decided to stop after four miles at this bridge.
Mark went to the other side of the river to enjoy the views of the clear water of the Vallecito River. It is that Coca-cola-glass-pop-bottle-green that we've seen on another hike this summer.
Before long, Denisa snapped this picture of Mark, napping on that comfy boulder.
While Mark is napping, Denisa is finding all kinds of wonders on her side of the river. She is busy taking butterfly pictures.
For some reason, the butterflies were drawn to this rock in the shade. There are no flowers in sight, but they are congregating here.
It's mostly the black and white butterflies, but some more colorful examples also like this particular rock.
It was time for a snack, so we went further upstream for a different view while we ate our picnic.
After we ate, Denisa went exploring again and took this picture from the bridge.
Mark had found another cozy boulder and was taking another nap!?! This is certainly unusual!
It was time to head back for the four-mile hike back to the car. We were hiking pretty quickly now, as the sky has clouded and we got an occasional sprinkling of rain. We heard thunder that echoed through the canyon, and we were sure hoping to get to the car before we got caught in a lightning-laced down pour on these rock ledges.
Denisa did stop to take more butterfly pictures, but Mark was really struggling as we hurried home. This is just an 8-mile hike, and we've certainly done more. Why is he so tired?
We got the answer to that question after we got home. He was feeling bad enough that he took his temperature. It was already well over 100. That fever didn't respond to acetaminophen, and it would continue to climb for the next 36 hours. He was one sick puppy by the next day when we saw thermometer readings of 103.6 and 103.9. It's nice to have medical advice over the phone from our son, who coached us through the worst of the fever. We were so glad when it finally came down! We were in lockdown mode, which we continued until we left Vallecito Resort. The fever really zapped Mark's stamina and we want to make sure that no one else gets this! But this certainly explains why Mark was so tired on such an easy trail!
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