Grizzly Peak hike

It was a nice but a bit cloudy Saturday day in July. We drove up to the Loveland pass and planned to have a nice hike. This is the best place to do that. We felt like we were in the fairy tail - go left and you find a mountain peak... go right and you find a few more... By the way, some hikers just do that - go to the left first and to the right next (or vice versa) ;) We decided for the right turn, because there were the easiest 14ers - Torreys Peak and Grays Peak... But we weren't sure if we were up to that, but here is Grizzly Peak (13,500 feet) just before those two so we could try it first and decide later if we want to do more...

The weather was really good for such a hike - cloudy with little sun. Chilly but not really cold. The clouds were hitting Torreys Peak all the time, but the chances for the rain were slim. So we decided to start with concurring Grizzly Peak first... So we started from the parking lot (11,900 feet) and did the first stretch - climbing 1000 feet to the ridge... It wasn't that difficult and as a reward we were looking at Highway 6 meandering towards Dilon from the birds eye.

 

The thundra was blooming and we really enjoyed our hike despite the sharp wind cutting through our jackets.

Torreys Peak was wearing the cloud hat again (and Grizzly Peak too), but we hoped it would be clear by the time we reached it so we continued...

There were hundreds of the flowers growing on the rocks (and Torreys Peak was covered by clouds again :) )...

We were hiking for almost two hours and still had a last stretch of 600 feet of steep and tough terrain in front of us...

30 more minutes and we reached our goal and were staying on the top of Grizzly Peak... Just look at this 360 degree panorama. Staying on the top of the mountain you can see miles and miles of the mountains... We didn't care about wind or cold... We forgot about work and life downhill... we were there and nothing else mattered anymore...

  

When we looked back to the ridge we were walking just minutes ago we were surprised with the clouds almost touching it... We didn't think we were so close to the sky... needed just stretch a hand and can touch the clouds... That was unbelievable!

 Torreys Peak, gray and unfriendly, was next in line...but we decided against hiking there and turned our tired feet back...

We hiked for about 3 miles, gained more than 2000 feet of elevation and passed three "hills" going down and up again after each of them... The wind was blowing harder and harder and we expected to have some troubles on our way back (and we had them, not too bad, but unpleasant)... It was time to return...

Hiking at high altitude and not meeting a mountain marmot? Waste of time! That's just impossible so we met a few of these creatures who lived all their life so high ;) Mostly they are careful and don't like the visitors close to them, but sometimes they do make some exceptions and allow to take a couple of pictures before they flick the tail and disappear between the rocks.

We stopped at Cupid Peak to have some rest and after a few minutes of just sitting and looking around I found we were not alone anymore. The ptarmigan was walking just 3 or 4 feet away from our feet. And even from a distance so close it wasn't easy to spot the bird.

Don't believe you can walk next to it and miss it? Look at the picture below and tell me how easy you can find the ptarmigan here? Do you believe me now? :)

I was looking at the bird and thinking about what it could find and eat there... While I was doing it, I realized the yellow flowers should be really tasty, cuz the bird was picking at them ;)

Finally after five hours we were back to the parking lot, tired but happy. 11,900 feet as a starting point is not a joke by itself, but climbing three peaks, descending a bit and hiking again to reach 13,500 feet was not easy (especially for not well trained hikers as we were). Looking at the pictures (just look at this panorama, isn't it an amazing view?) I just realized I want to do it again... Hence the tiredness I will feel later, it is worth doing that!

Pictures were taken on July 09, 2011.