Fourteener Day

This week, I had the opportunity to cross an item off my "bucket list" that has been there for 10 years.  I got up at the ungodly time of 2:30 AM (yes, you heard that right), and rode to the trailhead at Gray's Peak in Colorado for an 8 mile round trip and a 3,000+ feet vertical climb to the Gray's Summit at 14,278 feet.  

This is my second 14er to stand on the top of, it's the first that I hiked from the peak base to the top from. 

Here we are at 5:05am, at dusk at the trailhead.  Ready to go. 

The sunrise was really amazing as we climbed.

We took drinks from the mountain spring-fed stream (It tasted cleaner than the bottled water I brought)

We saw this rockpile formations all along the trail.  I think it has some kind of spiritual significance for people, or perhaps it's just a "you're on the right path" trail marker.  

I thought that Craig's air purchase was kind of dumb, that was until we were climbing at 13,000+ feet.  It's rosemary scented...

Lots of climbing later - 4 hours later we made it to the top.  The views at the top of Gray's made all of the steep climbing with minimal air worth it.  You could see Keystone, Breck, and Pikes Peak from the top.  Praise God it was a very clear day!

There was a little snow left on the top.  I enjoyed playing in it.

We saw a mountain goat on the way down that was really close to the trail.  He let us take pictures with him.

As we returned to our cars just before noon, I was amazed with the difference between how the mountains looked at dusk and how they looked with the sun up in it's full glory.  God is an amazing artist!