Indian Peaks

On Sunday of last week, Connie and I went with our friends Jeremy and Monica and their two children (plus one friend) up to Boulder County for a picnic and hike in an area just east of the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. This is a shot of the Indian Peaks from near where we parked. They had a dusting of snow from a storm a few days earlier.

Our mountain trees are mostly evergreens so we don't get the dramatic color changes seen in Eastern forests. The aspens here do change to a very bright yellow that highlights the green of the rest of the forest and thousands of people drive up from the city in September to see them.

The valley floor where we parked was at about 9,000 ft. and several granite domes like this one thrust up from it. We clambered to the tops of two of them for better views.

It was very breezy at the tops and here you see Connie, Monica, the kids, and Sadie on a ledge to get out of the wind.

Here we are hiking through an aspen grove on our way between the domes. It's interesting how neighboring groves can simultaneously be green, have turned yellow, or have already dropped their leaves. From what I understand, the roots of all the aspens in one grove are all connected so in essence each grove is one big plant.

The top of the second dome had this big notch in it that served as a big wind tunnel. As you can see it had a big pothole full of water that the dogs splashed into to get a drink. Somehow we kept the kids from falling in.