A Hiking We Will Go...To Mayflower Gulch

Early one recent Wednesday morning, I drove to my uncles' apartment in Denver.  The three of us then ventured up I-70 to a place called Mayflower Gulch.  For those of you familiar with Colorado geography, this is close to Frisco and Copper Mtn.  This is a beautiful hike through the trees to an abandoned mining camp surrounded by a rugged range.  My uncles had tried to hike here about 3 weeks before we went, but the snow was so deep that they actually were meeting skiers rather than hikers.  Thanks to some "hot" weather, the snow had melted significantly.  We were able to really enjoy the hike.  I am constantly reminded of the beauty of nature in this part of the country.  This is a major factor in my desire to relocate to Colorado.  I hope you enjoy these photos of our day.

The view through the trees as we followed the road to the camp.

This little chipmunk was the only wildlife we came across.

A stream flowed down from the surrounding mountains and out of the gulch.  The road followed the stream.  Unfortunately, a picture doesn't carry the sound of the running water.  It is so relaxing.

Here are the peaks at the back of the gulch.  If you look carefully in the first picture, you can see the abandoned buildings.  We walked up in this area to have lunch -- what a VIEW!!!

This is the lunch time view looking back to where we started.  Absolutely breathtaking.

A few years ago, Mary Jo, the uncles and I actually hiked up and had lunch on this ridge.  We opted not to traverse the snow that was still present.  We did watch (through our binoculars) some other hikers that did cross the snow.

This was a group of "baby" trees among the "adults" trees.

One of my favorite things to do is take pictures of the wild flowers.  Here were some that were already blooming.

Uncle Gerald is really NOT that much taller than me.  He is cheating and standing on a rock.

Uncle Michael is really even taller than me as I took a page from Gerald's book and cheated by standing on the rock :-)

Time to head back to the car -- actually I was in search of coffee and a bathroom!!!  A great, great day.