14er Sunrise

Last night, Aaron informed us that we all needed to be up and ready to go by 4:30am. We were going to be doing our first 14er. A 14er is a mountain with an elevation above 14,000 feet. There are 55 of these in Colorado. Today's destination was Mt. Evans.

We got up and headed out. We were trying to make it to the top before sunrise at 5:31am this morning. We were a bit late. When the sun came up we were about 14 miles from the top. It turned out to be a spectacular drive though. We had to stop and take pictures of mountain goats in the road. We also saw a whole lot of marmots. These things look almost like beavers, their tails are just different. We also saw a herd of elk along the road.

Just before reaching the top of the mountain, Campbell started to suffer from a bit of motion sickness. It was really no surprise considering the twisty turny road we were on. Campbell has now vomited at sea level and above 14,000 feet. I'm sure that has some sort of significance.

At the top we saw more mountain goats. There were a few big goats and two of the cutest little baby mountain goats. They have apparently become very accustomed to seeing people around because we were standing about 10 feet from them taking pictures. We also discovered that while it may be 90 plus degrees down here in Denver, it is freezing cold above 14,000 feet.

After viewing the wildlife, we headed back to Idaho Springs where we had breakfast. We were home from our adventure by 9:00am. It may have been early, but we all agreed that the views were worth the early wake-up call.