Saturday, May 19, 2012

Pinos Creek

We went on a beautiful drive up into the mountains to Pinos Creek.  Some of the trails in this area won’t open until July 1st. 
In 1870 the Pinos Creek route was used by miners to access the Summitville mining district where gold had been discovered.
This is the fourth outing we’ve gone on and I was beginning to think this would be the first one where it didn’t snow. 
We ended up at 12,200 feet and, you guessed it, it started snowing.  In fact, it was snowing sideways!
It also started getting pretty darn cold!
On the way up to the top we stopped at about 8,000 feet and hiked around.  The birds are singing and the wildflowers are starting to bloom.
Gray Jay
Mountain Bluebird
Plumbeous Vireo
Narrow-leaved Puccoon
Penstemon Sp.

3 comments:

  1. Brrrr..... your photos make me feel like it's winter again. But, oh, so beautiful they are! Pretty amazing those plants can grow (and flower) in such weather. Did your "bodies" have to acclimate to the higher elevation?

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  2. Hi Sharon - We still seem to be acclimating. When we get to those high elevations we huff and puff when hiking up hills. It is great to see the flowers starting to bloom.

    Mark

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  3. we have the paccoon here too, but I haven't seen one yet. I hope all that snow is gone by the time we get there!!!

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