July 17

I’m in Fraser, Colorado enjoying the beautiful Rocky Mountains. One of my hiking buddies, Lynne, invited me and a group of fellow hikers to a long weekend at her family’s vacation home. Lynne and I drove out; the others arrived this afternoon. It took us 20 hours to get here. We overnighted past the halfway point in Salina, Utah. The time flew by as we chatted about many topics and I entertained myself taking cloud pictures out the windshield. On the first day, we ate lunch in the car rather than brave the 100-degree weather. Colorado welcomed us with an afternoon thunderstorm.

Yesterday we took a hike to Bottle Peak. Most of the climb was in the trees and I was quickly winded heading up from 10,000‘ . We were rewarded with a stunning view of Byers and St. Louis peaks. Above timberline it was cold and windy. Lynn continued to the peak while I wandered the meadow taking pictures of wildflowers.

Today we got up at, 4:30 a.m.. so we could get to Monarch Lake for sunrise. There we did an easy four-mile loop. The mist was clearing and the reflection on the still lake was beautiful.