We woke up in the morning ready to find the Mount of the Holy Cross! We packed up our stuff and drove off to a Ranger Station to confirm the trail location and views. Inside it had photos of animals and other things like skeletons and furs of animals. Once we had gotten some info about it we headed over to Half Moon Pass; that was the name of the trail head.

The trail head!

As we started to head up, the air was definitely thinner! We were panting on the first half mile which is NOT normal! We drank lots of water and continued up. On the way up we had our eyes on the look out for wildlife. We finally made it out on the top of the mountain pass and saw the view all around! It was really pretty, so we stopped for a snack on some rocks.

looking out at the cross

Original engraving

We were looking out for the cross but it was not in sight. The reason was that in the book, they had seen it from another time of year when snow was on it. On the mountain, there is a crack in it in the shape of cross, and the snow would fill it! But, no snow was in it so we could not see it. We did find the spot – well, maybe.

The spot!

We think we did and continued on the trail down to a creek at the bottom of the mountain. On the way we saw a large open rocky area that we heard constant little chirps. We stopped to look and see what it was. They were pikas! Pikas are like chinchillas but a short tail and smaller. They inspired the character Pikachu the Pokemon! (Its not the real reason, but I think you can see resemblance in the two!)

Pika on rock!

They were so cute just running and jumping across the rocks! We headed further into Pika Pass and saw tons more along the way. Pika Pass was amazing! We continued down the path toward a sheer cliff on the side of the trail, with no railings. It continued for about half a mile. My mom was SO scared because she is scared of open ledges! The trail started making hairpin curves as we walked into an aspen forest glimmering with yellow everywhere!

Aspen!

It was just stunning how yellow it was.  We passed through the aspens with another few hairpin curves. Finally we could hear the river and continued down the trail. We found a good spot for lunch and ate there.

Lunch

We saw a place where someone had a built a campfire so we broke it up and spread the ashes.  Campfires were prohibited because we were in a pine forest that can light up like a match! We didn’t want someone else to make one and kill the forest by just a spark hitting a pine needle on a tree. We packed back up and headed back up the trail over the cliff, aspen forest and Pika Pass. On the way down the other side of the pass we saw some chipmunks and squirrels. By the time we got back to the car, my legs were pretty tired because we had just hiked 7 miles. On the REALLY bumpy drive down we stopped at another aspen forest. Their beautiful colors made me feel at peace.

In an aspen forest.

We jumped back into the car and drove carefully down to the paved road. We drove on to Dillon for the night and fell in the bed. Happy and tired, I fell asleep looking forward to the days to come.