Climbing a fourteener was something on my bucket list. For those of you not from Colorado that's a 14,000 foot tall mountain. Some of these mountains take skill, like Longs Peak. Others like Mount Bierstadt take an early start, some stamina, and the will to finish. Nate and I decided it was best to attempt without the kids so we arranged for all 4 kids to spend the night with my mom. It was Orion's first overnight away from home without mom but he did great.
We found this cute little European hotel in Georgetown which operated like a bed and breakfast. The view was nice, the rooms were lovely, the service was excellent, and the homemade croissants and fruit for breakfast delivered to your room were amazing. We had a nice dinner down the road and sat on the balcony drinking wine, listening to the stream. So nice to be kid-free for an entire 24 hours.
We arrived at the trail head at 8am and it was packed. I never thought I'd be hiking with so many people but the weather was lovely and it was probably one of the last weekends of the year for hiking fourteeners.
Nate all ready to hike
Even the bottom of the trail was beautiful
I was thankful for the boardwalk through the thickets. It was very muddy and wet at the bottom.
There were a lot of hanging lakes
Getting rocky and steep
Taking a break
Despite our best efforts and 6 hours of hiking we didn't make it to the top. The 2nd half of the trail was very steep and rocky. Imagine stair stepping for hours at high elevation. Needless to say we didn't hike very fast. About 3/4 of the way up we heard thunder. The clouds were gray and looking ominous but we were hoping to beat the storm. After the 2nd clap of thunder we decided to call it a day and turn back. It took us a couple hours to hike down. We didn't want to get stuck in a lightning storm up above tree line. We were both pretty disappointed but don't worry we'll be back next summer. Instead of 8am start we'll be at the trail head at 6am. Hopefully with an earlier start we can beat any afternoon storms. Still a lovely day in nature with my husband so I can't complain.
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