At the Trailhead
When we woke we ate breakfast and began researching trails around Gray’s Peak. When we found the trail that heads through the valley and up the to top of Gray’s Peak, it looked like the trail was not far off of where the original book portrayed images of the peak. We drove to the trailhead on a very rough road, even bumpier than the one we rode on to Mount of the Holy Cross! Once we had almost reached the trailhead, we saw three mule deer grazing in a small field along the side of the road.
Mule deer on the side of the road
They were rather calm and paid little attention to us when we stopped to look at them. We continued on, reached a small gravel parking lot, and and headed off up the trail. Soon we could see the mines that writers and artists from the book stopped by to get provisions and directions from.
Old Mine
We saw across the stream that the mine had been abandoned and was falling apart. We continued up past he tree line, where only a specific low growth bush, some grasses, and small wildflowers could grow. As we wandered up the trail, we came to a place that looked similar to one of the views in the book, but not quite at the right angle. So we decided to walk off the path to find a vantage point that lined up better. Since the vegetation is very fragile, we tried to walk on rocks and stones as much as we could. Once the mountains lined up, we tried to make the stream fall into place, and then saw that even the vegetation had hardly changed at all! The vegetation in the engraving was in all the same places, maybe spreading a little here and there, but no real change at all.
Rock stack and the view.
Again, chills ran down the spine – maybe only a few people had been where the artist sat and where we stood now. It was beyond words. We saw where someone had made a fire ring nearby, so we dispersed the remains and built a rock stack there instead, circling it with dead branches from the bushes that they may have used to burn. We continued up the trail hearing pikas squeaking at us from their rock homes.
Pika storing grass for the winter
We passed a field that was full of rocks, and saw some pikas storing grass for the winter. We decided to go onto a ridge on the way up the Gray’s peak instead of trying to summit it. On the way up it even began to snow a little bit! Nothing stayed on the ground for long, and the flurry didn’t last very long anyway. As we continued higher, marmots bounced their fat and furry bodies across the barren landscape.
Marmot
In its own unique way the landscape was very peaceful and beautiful. As we ascended the mountain we spotted some people following the top ridge of the mountain next to Gray’s Peak. Once we reached our destination, we stopped and ate a snack to recharge for the way down. On the way back down we ran into the people who had been on the top ridge earlier, and offered to send them some photos we had taken of them.
They appreciated our offering and we got their email addresses to send photos to them when we got back. One of them had just been diagnosed with cancer, and he said that it may be his last hike.