Morning in the mountains

Sunrise in the mountains is often a beautiful and mystical show. Sometimes you cannot tell if you see these gorgeous colors or if you are dreaming of them... At this moment you often grab anything you have in your pocket and try to capture the scene so later you can prove your sanity and confirm you weren't sleepwalking while seeing this miracle... And mostly this "something" happens to be your smartphone ;) Today this device is capable of capturing the image, but 10 years ago... hm... it was possible to capture some impressions... but not even close to what I was able to see while I was driving to work.

 

And these amazing sunrises happened a couple days in a row during the week and made me thinking, if the sunrise downhills are so bright and unimaginable, they should be even more beautiful up in the mountains and worse to wake up before dusk and drive all way up there and capture these colors and shapes just above still sleeping Denver...

Part 1. Foggy morning...

So that Saturday I woke up before 5am, had some sandwiches and started towards  Lookout Mountain where I expected to meet the sunrise. But... the mountains make the weather unpredictable and hard to plan on. From the moment I started the engine I had some doubts if I would be able to capture anything. Literally anything... Because that morning was foggy. And while in the city the fog was light and looked more like haze, it changed when I reached Highway 6 and was driving closer to the foothills. The fog there was real... thick... and driving through felt like swimming in the milk shake. The visibility was about 100 feet and the road was wet and there were a few icy spots. I was even thinking about turning back, but... continued to climb higher and higher and I was rewarded just after I passed the Morrison - the fog was disappearing (not completely but mostly) and the sky was cloudy, but not that bad. Sigh of relief left my lungs when I turned to the road, which brought me to the view point where I expected to observe the beautiful sunrise... Expected... cuz when I got there I found out two things... First - I was above the fog now, meaning everything below me was covered by a fog blanket - Denver was completely invisible ;) And the second - the sunrise was not supposed to rise above Denver as I expected... The sun was already peeking, but much on the right, so the trees were hiding it completely. That's a bummer I thought and made a quick decision to change the location. Easy to say... I had maybe 20 minutes and needed to walk back to the car and drive somewhere ;) The first obstacle didn't look like a big problem, all I needed was to run through the woods and to save half of the time. So I did... and after a minute of running I met a big pack of mule deer having breakfast in the small opening between the trees. "At least they are not bears" I was thinking while making an arc to avoid close contact with the animals.

 

15 minutes later I dropped the car at the parking lot at the Dinosaur Ridge and ran up to the summit where I expected to have a better view of Denver and the sunrise. But my heart sank when I started - I was running through the fog (again ;) ). The fog was all around me but I still hoped for the miracle and continued walking toward the summit. Once there I just found out I still cannot see anything but... there was a trail weaving and leading up to the ridge so I turned and started to climb a steep slope....

A few minutes later I finally was able to see the... blanket of thick fag below my feet and understood, there were no sunrise this day, because the fog wrapped up the city and the clouds were blocking sun rays and didn't let it shine. But I had no regrets and thought I could capture the sunrise next time, but when I would be able to see the city covered with fog. Or, better to say, when I couldn't see the city, because it was covered with fog...

And I really enjoyed being there that morning - steaming fog and frosted grass. Frost on the pine needles and... view of the basin below my feet... everything was even better than I expected (just it wasn't a beautiful sunrise ;) ).

Part 2. Only mountains can be better than mountains.

Even though the sunrise never came, I didn't feel like coming back home. That's why starting your day early is a good idea - even if one of your plans fails you still have time to fail the next one ;) Yes, it still was just before 7am and... I thought it would be a good idea to drive up to the mountains and find something nice there. But... I was hungry (because of the early start, light breakfast I had and a couple of runs I performed to reach the car and the summit ;) ). The pit-stop in Idaho Springs for some eggs looked like a great idea so I did it ;) The town was still sleepy and very quiet. As far as I remember there were only two people having breakfast in the Frothy Cup so I joined them and refueled myself with huevos rancheros and was ready to continue on my adventure...

I walked along Miner St and climbed in the car. I had an idea...

That morning was chilly and driving up and up I felt like the air became colder and colder... But also cleaner and fresher. I also found more snow on the shoulders... Half an hour later I found myself at the elevation of 11,990 ft. I also found some wind and temperature below the freezing point... But it was worth it...

 

I was at the top of the mountains (actually, not yet, but close) and surrounded by ridges, slopes, peaks and the valleys just under my feet.

I put all the clothes I had on me and started climbing the closest slope, walking towards the sun...

The snow wasn't deep, but the sky was blue and the snow white. The air was amazingly fresh (and also cold) and... it was just wonderful and I enjoyed every step ;)

And I wasn't alone hiking there, just one who didn't have a good purpose ;) By purpose I mean climbing up all the way to mount a snowboard and glide downhill with crazy speed :)

At one point I stopped and turned back. I didn't have a good plan of what to do here in the first place so I just felt like returning back to the car. But... the view was absolutely stunning.

I met another group of friendly snowboarders on the way back and they even posed for me ;)

When I was almost down to the summit I stopped and laughed out loud... Bright green Share the road sign looked funny on the snowy slope next to the icy road ;)

Once at the car I had a crazy thought in my head... "If I just hiked to the right side, why not hike to the left one?" Why was that crazy? I'll tell you later ;)

So I drank some water and... turned to the left and started to climb up. I had no idea what was waiting for me... The slope was steep. Really steep and twice steeper compared to one I climbed before. The wind was strong and I didn't have the right clothes so I felt like the wind cut though it like a sharp knife. I could feel the coldness reaching my bone marrow... And... to make it even "better" I was walking in knee deep snow. And, again, it was steep! At some point I stopped to count my heartbeat just to find out it was 150-160 beats per minute and I saw no end for the climb. Don't forget I started from almost 12,000 feet in the first place ;)

At some point somewhere in the middle of the trail up I met a guy who was rolling down, almost running... "How is it up there?" I asked him... "Windy... very..." he said and literally slided down the trail. And he had all the right clothes (unlike me) - layers, windstopper, good gloves and goggles ;)

I stopped for a few minutes to catch my breath and kept climbing up... I wasn't going to stop here and turned back and... finally... I found myself on the top of the hill and... I have no words to describe the feeling I had at this moment... Look at this 360 degrees panorama and just feel it yourself. The all I was able to think about at the moment was a phase from the song:
    The world at one glance! You’re happy and mute
    And slightly jealous of those who’ll come
    The ones who have this peak a while ahead...

Was I tired? You bet I was... Had I regret climbing up there without proper clothes and despite the difficulty? NOOO, I hadn't! Yes, the wind here was twice stronger compared to the slope... Yes I was frozen and my fingers lost the feeling... But it was worth it and I would do it again even knowing how hard it would be.

 

I know, some of you would say - a wimp! And, probably it's right. In fact the slope is not that steep (or is it? starting at 12,000 feet I gained 1000 feet hiking 1 mile in distance, definitely not a piece of cake) - later I hiked there again (in Summer) and it was much easier. I guess that time it was a combination of the Winter cold and not being in good shape (and, honestly, I wasn't ready for a hike, I expected to take a couple of sunrise pictures and return back home)... Anyway, I was there and enjoyed every second and even the wind wasn't that annoying anymore ;)

I wandered around and looked in all directions and was unable to decide which view I liked more ;)

Finally I stopped next to the pile of rocks and found a small bottle left by someone who was here before me. It was a good idea I thought, but I had nothing to warm me up, so the best I could do was to return back to the car and turn the heat on ;)

Believe it or not, but the return took only one tenth of the time I climbed up. And... honestly... I wasn't really looking around because at this point I was really numb and you could perform a surgery on me and remove my heart without even hurting me ;) 

I met a couple of snowboarders who were climbing up to the ridge and... I am not sure if I was still envious... I guess I had my portion of the fresh air and adrenalin and was ready to return back to a normal life, to my warm house, someplace where snow didn't come yet ;)

I just made a quick stop on my way back to Denver. I climbed out of the car and shot this picture at the Red Rocks... It still was a bit foggy, but... everything was different - warm (actually almost hot) sun, green (yep, still green) grass and... absence of snow! I couldn't believe my eyes - there wasn't any snow downhills! At this point I understood how lucky I was to travel not only a distance between Denver and Loveland Pass, but also to travel between different worlds, the tough world of mountains and snow and the warm world of comfortable life... And I was missing the coldness on the mountains already...

Pictures were taken on November 20, 2010.