Last Day near Buena Vista, CO

We're way behind in getting travel posts published because we were having way too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 22, 2023

Back in March we made plans to stay for a whole month at one place during the busy summer season. Now it was hard to believe that our month was almost over. This was our last full day near Buena Vista, Colorado. How should we spend it? First of all, we should point out that neither one of us were very sore from our marathon horse-back ride the day before. That was a good surprise! 

We were up early because we had learned that the wind usually picks up later in the day, and storms usually arrive in the afternoon. We made the 30-minute drive to Turquoise Lake, and were standing on the shores around 8:30 a.m.

 The still water was reflecting the puffy white clouds. It looked like a great time to go kayaking.

By the time we got the Sea Eagle kayak inflated and carried to the water, the winds had arrived. But it was delightfully cool and we had blue skies overhead.

We could look to the east to see the mountains that surround the town of Leadville. If you looked very closely, you could even see some of the town's buildings in the mountain valley ahead of us.

Just like the rest of the mountains surrounding Leadville, this area has been mined for its precious metals. We kayaked by the shore where the different rock colors are the remnants of old gold and silver mines that have been silent for years.

We found a big rock sticking out of the water, and Denisa dropped Mark off for a photo opportunity.

She kayaked around by herself .. .

but she always comes back to pick him up.

It was getting more cloudy and more windy. So after paddling for four miles, we headed back to our launch place. It was fun to see snow still on the mountain tops of some of the highest peaks in the Rockies during our last kayak trip of the summer. We have wandered into another of God's wonders!

After we dried off the kayak and put it away, we drove up into those mountains for the last mountain hike of the summer. We had explored many of the Rocky Mountain wilderness areas, and this day's hike took us into the Holy Cross Wilderness.

We could hear the roar of chainsaws in the distance, as a crew was clearing parts of this popular trail.

On our last day near Buena Vista, we also saw the signs for the Continental Divide and Colorado Trails for the last time this summer. This was the trail that the 100-mile racers ran on just outside of Leadville as they started and finished that grueling test of endurance. 

Today our 5.7-mile hike (with 890-foot elevation gain) to Timberline Lake was neither grueling or a test of endurance. But it was our last hike in these beautiful mountains for the summer. 

The water was crystal clear, and we could see all the rocks on the bottom of the lake. We had wandered into another of God's wonders! It was 2:00 when we arrived at Timberline Lake, and the clouds were building in front of us.

We hiked half-way around the lake, and decided we better head back down off this mountain when we started to hear the thunder. We made a pretty fast retreat as we hoped not to get too wet on the last day near Buena Vista. It was another day filled with beautiful scenery as we finished up a lovely month in Colorado!