4th of July is a great day for a picnic or easy hike. Probably hike
to gain some appetite and picnic or barbecue later ;) And I know the
place! So I just jumped in the car and half an hour later turned from
Evergreen to Squaw Pass Road climbing toward Echo Lake...
Honestly, I love this mountain road. It meanders between rocks and
trees and the surroundings are just beautiful. And what I like even more
is stopping here and there and enjoying looking at the mountain ridges
far away (actually not that far ;) ).
These distant peaks are still covered with snow and... just look amazing.
If you want something nice and easy, you can just walk around the
lake. Very easy hike but you can breathe some pine infused air and enjoy
some forest. Or you can hike to Chicago Lakes but this is another
story... Long and not that easy hike, but super nice. But definitely not
today ;)
...and a lot of damselflies... I like these small dragonflies but it was unimaginable to see that many of them in the same place. I
could expect a few... a few dozens... or a bit more... but there were
hundreds of them buzzing around (and I am not kidding, they were all
around me when I stepped on the coast)...
But, please, don't take me wrong, no complaints, I like the company (and, listen, they are not mosquitos, right?)
Most of them are blue kind, but from time to time a few grey ones appeared between blue and made the crowd look even nicer.
Later I decided to move out of the lake and started climbing up a
bit. The slope there is not really steep and the forest is dry and nice
looking.
I made a wide arc and returned back to the trail so I can be back to the lake...
Some movement caught my eye and I saw a small squirrel. It was
running around the tree trunk and stayed relatively close so it promised
some nice shots and I started changing the lens. When I was almost
done with the task, the squirrel ran towards me, squeezed between my legs
and climbed up the tree on the other side of the trail. Nice job I
thought and now it looked at me from the top branch of the pine (and I
swear it smiled at me!).
In fact there were three small squirrels and I had some good time
watching them running up and down, fighting and playing with each other.
They really made my day!
Soon I was back to the lake, watched people fishing and decided to
drive back to my 4th of July barbecue.
But I should stop at my favorite spot and enjoy this spectacular view across the valley...
I made a couple more short stops on my way back to Evergreen but
soon was back on the highway driving toward Denver and hot July day.
Probably next time I need to have my lunch up in the mountains where the
temperature is significantly lower and I don't have a feeling of a chicken
roasting in the oven (or ribs grilled in the Char-Broil)...
Driving along Squaw Pass Road in November (believe it or not, but there was much less snow on the peaks and ridges) - Saturday in mountains
Pictures were taken on July 04, 2022.
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