An hour and a half from Cheyenne is the Snowies, a mountain range that lives up to its name. I don't know their altitude but in the parking lot we were at 10,800 feet. If I had to guess I would say the summits were at 13,000 or so. The snow stays year round.
A nice picnic before our hike. With that view who could complain?
I just love this picture, it's a photographers worst nightmare. No one in the picture but Nora is making the right face. The boys just crack me up! I don't know what Tim was pointing at nor do I know why Nathaniel was sighting down a stick. Their faces communicate such character.
I am not sure whether the snow could be called a glacier or a snow pack. It slowly moved down hill to where it would melt and run off into streams and lakes. But a significant portion of it stayed year round. We had to hike across several of these snow packs/glaciers during our hike. They were quite slippery.
Nathaniel got to be the "leader". It goes against our normal hiking rules, but I kept him close and just let him believe he was.
Nora taking a brake and still wearing her compass.
My boys. Need I say more?
I just love this picture. It makes me feel like we climbed Everest. The trail took us up to a ridge between the peaks.
We spotted a Marmot whistling at us in warning. They are much like a groundhog just at high altitude.
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The kids tired out and Mike offered to take them down. Chad and I pushed on for the summit which wasn't much father.
We had parked beside the lake you see in the top right. I was very impressed that Tim who is 2 made that hike. Now, I can't say he made it down the mountain without some wining, but still for a Midwestern boy of his age I think he did outstanding.
Chad, Mika and I made it to the top. Mika is quite the hiking dog, and she just loves it. Once we turned around and headed down she made it clear to me that my parenting skills were in question for leaving the kids with Mike (who to Mika was close to a stranger). She was eager to get down the trail and if I went too slow or stopped she would give me a low wine. She never pulled me, which would have been dangerous in many parts but she wanted to get back to those kids of hers as fast as possible.
While we were on top we found a fellow hiker to take our picture.
Once we made it back down to the lake the kids were happy to see us.
On the way I took some wildflower pictures.
I can not wait to go back! I just love the mountains. I guess it's the view, the wide open spaces and cool air but the higher I am the happier I am.
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