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Lime Creek Canyon Fishing

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Last summer we ventured back to our favorite mountain getaway (which you can see the images from a previous trip here and here) a few different times. The first trip there for the summer took place over the weekend of the Fourth of July, and we were treated to some extremely wet, muddy conditions for a good portion of the trip. It had rained a lot the few days before we got there, as well as the day of, making everything a slimy, muddy mess. But, the plus side to so much rain? Everything was crazy green! 

We did end up getting pretty lucky, and the sun came out for a good chunk of the day, giving us perfect weather to fish (well, for Scott to fish, for me to sit in a chair and read), and allowing things to dry out at least a little bit. 

Up next: images from the sky (the perks of dating a private pilot). 

Mount Elbert

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Time to go back to my first weekend living in Colorado again! And to give you fair warning, there are images of an adorable, sleepy puppy towards the end of this post, so prepare yourselves. 

As mentioned in the last post, my best friend, Blair, and I spent the weekend camping in Twin Lakes, CO, with the goal of hiking Mount Elbert. Mount Elbert is the tallest peak in Colorado, standing at 14,439', so it was an exciting goal for my first weekend as a Colorado resident. We drove to the trailhead as the sun was just coming up that morning, and started hiking in the brisk morning air. 

It was a long, rather deceptive hike, with false summit after false summit (or so it felt). But, we kept hiking away, slowly but surely, taking in the incredible scenery and views as we went. 

The summit was absolutely stunning, and made the long hike up worth it. Unfortunately, we still had to get down (the worst part, in my opinion). Blair and I were both exhausted, partially from Stella's (the puppy) seemingly never ending energy. Yet, as we worked our way down, even she started to look completely worn out (somehow not until around tree line though). When we stopped to take breaks towards the end of the hike, Stella would promptly lay down and nearly fall asleep. 

We eventually made it all the way down, drove to a gas station for firewood and other provisions, and then made the short drive back to our campsite. The clouds and light over Twin Lakes on the way to our site were beyond spectacular. So, despite our complete exhaustion, we stopped so that I could grab a few images before heading back to collapse and eat dinner. 

The following morning we, unfortunately, had to pack up and head back to the real world. We enjoyed a somewhat lazy breakfast, packed stuff up, and drove out. The water on the lakes that morning was like glass, creating a perfect reflection of the surrounding area. I snagged a few shots out of the window as we drove past, sad to be leaving that amazing place so soon. 

Colorado Part 2

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In order to keep the last post somewhat short I only posted about half the images from our trip to Colorado. We woke up on our last full day there to a beautiful morning overlooking the Twin Sisters. Scott's dream is to climb The Diamond so we camped both nights at the Longs Peak campground, and on our way into town that day we stopped at a lookout point to grab some images of the beast that is The Diamond. 

After a delicious (and leisurely) breakfast in Estes, we decided to hike to the base of a climb we wanted to do, with the tentative goal of trying to climb it. We got a late start that day though, and by the time we arrived at the base we wouldn't have had enough time to get through the climb before it was dark (and we did not have the provisions necessary to climb or hike back in the dark unfortunately). It was still a beautiful hike, and the route looked like an extremely fun one; and so, yet another climb has been added to our to-do list.

That evening we made our way back to camp and after eating dinner I set up my camera for a time-lapse of our tent. I grabbed a few stills as well since it is my goal to one day create a book of images from all the places we have camped, and I must say, the one after dark may be one of my favorite images that I have taken.  

The time-lapse is an extremely simple and short one, but I wanted something more than just a still image to document the evening there. 

The next day on our way home Scott wanted to stop again to get some more images of The Diamond, and take one last look at the mountain. It was a nice way of wrapping up our trip, and solidified for us that we need to climb it at some point.