Mama Said

Below are some pictures from a hike at Oil Well Flats that I took about a month ago.

Looking towards Dinosaur Flats and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

View of Florence and the Wet Mountains

Garden Park

Oil Well Flats, Dinosaur Flats, & the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Cañon City, Wet Mountains, & the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

It wouldn’t be a Mother’s Day Post without having some flower pictures.

Flowers

Rock Flowers

More Rock Flowers

House Guest

More House Guests

Happy Mother's Day

XI

February Stars

Here are some pictures from a couple of hikes in February.

Cliffs

Red Canyon Park

Pikes Peak from Fremont Peak

Royal Gorge & the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

After The Thrill Is Gone

I went for a hike on Monday in the Shelf Road Recreation Area. The area is big for rock climbing. Once I got out of the main parking area, I didn't see anybody until I followed a road back through the rock climbing area. I made a nice loop hike. The weather was good as well. I also came across a flock of turkeys. There may have been as many as 50. Here are the pics.

Sand Gulch - Wet Mountains & the Sangre de Cristo Mountain in the distance.

Looking north

The Trail

A old cabin along the trail

Camera shy turkeys

Road and cliffs.

There Has Been An Awakening

Just got back.  I didn't wait for your birthday.

Freeze Frame

Happy Thanksgiving. Due to the weather, I had to call a couple of audibles for my Thanksgiving hike. I ended up just doing an easy hike along the Arkansas River. Here is a picture from the hike.

Arkansas River

It has been a while since my last post. My September hiking plans got ruined by a cold that wouldn't go away. All is good now. Here are some pictures that I took since my last post.

Sunflowers

Visitor

A family of visitors

Roundabout

On August 22nd, I did the Comanche – Venable Loop Hike in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The trailhead is southwest of Westcliffe and is conveniently called Comanche and Venable Trailhead. I got on the trail 6:07 A.M. and started the steep climb to Comanche Lake. I had been to the lake before. The hike was steeper than I remembered. I kept on going after reaching the lake and made my way to the saddle between Comanche Peak and Spring Mountain. From the saddle, I detoured off the trail and climbed Comanche Peak (13,277 ft.)

Comanche Peak

Horn Peak (left) Comanche Peak (right)

Comanche Lake

Crestone Needle, Mt. Adams, Kit Carson, Challenger Point

Venable Peak (left) Spring Mtn (Right) 

Me on Comanche Peak

After enjoying Comanche Peak, I backtracked to the saddle. From the saddle the trail contours around Spring Mountain (13,244 ft.) to the Phantom Terrace. At this point, I decided to make another side trip. I detoured off the trail again and climbed Venable Peak. (13,334 ft.)

Spring Mountain (left) Horn Peak (center)

Kit Carson & Challenger Point (middle)  Crestone Needle & Crestone Peak are partial blocked by Mt. Adams to the left Kit Carson

Top of Venable Peak.  San Luis Valley in the haze.

After Venable Peak, I climbed back down to the Phantom Terrace. The Phantom Terrace is a ledge that the trail follows down to Venable Lakes. It is supposedly haunted because the ledge is hard to see at a distance. From Phantom Terrace, it was a downhill of about 6 miles to my car. I finished the hike a little after 3 P.M. I estimate my hike to be about 14 miles

Phantom Terrace

Venable Lakes from the Phantom Terrace

Looking back at the Phantom Terrace

Venable Lakes

Cabin in need of repair

Dead Car Battery Blues

Last weekend I visited a friend in Wyoming. We went camping in the Medicine Bow area. We got a campsite at Silver Lake. After we got set up, we were going to go check out some of the sites, but the car didn’t start. Dead battery. So we just hung out at the campsite for the rest of the afternoon and evening. We survived. We had plenty of beer and food. The next morning, with the help of some other campers, we got the car started by push starting. We made it back to Laramie without issue. I replaced the battery there and went home. Even though the camping trip didn’t quite go as intended, I had a good visit with my friend. While don’t have a lot pictures for this post, I do have a lot pictures for the next post. So stay tuned…

A rainbow after one of the storms that went through while camped at Silver Lake

Castle

Epilogue. My parents were still in town for a few days after my section hike on the Colorado Trail. On July 27th, we went for a drive in the Wet Mountains after dropping off their rental car. The first stop was Lake Isabel. It was pretty much a recreation area for fishing. We got out and went for a short walk next to the lake.

Lake Isabel

We then went to Bishop Castle . What is Bishop Castle ? It is a homemade castle built by Jim Bishop. You are allowed to explore it on your own. It is pretty amazing. Some of the castle is a bit hairy in regards to heights. It was fun watching the different levels of fear that people had to it. I made it to the top. The view was great.

Inside Bishop Castle

Looking down from the sphere like structure

The tallest tower

Bridge to nowhere

Looking down on the sphere like structure

View down from the top

The Dragon

Stained Glass

Bottom half Bishop Castle

Top half of Bishop Castle

After the castle, we drove to Westcliffe and ate lunch. After that, we headed home. My parent went home a few days later.