Rocky Mountain Vay-Cay Day 6: Mountains and Moose

We departed Edwards, CO, where BFF Dana lives, early Tuesday morning. Our voyage away from the comforts of couch-crashing was not a simple one.

First we traveled through Glenwood Canyon to hike up to Hanging Lake. Hanging Lake is about a 1-mile hike up through the canyon. The lake is a travertine, which means limestone dissolves and deposits itself on dead trees making something very fuzzy and odd-looking. The hike is lovely - lots of climbing up and lots of climbing down, of course - but very shady with a tumbling creek twisted around the trail.

Since it's a quick hike lots of families climb to Hanging Lake. We heard tons of grumbling kids, thirsty kids (since people really seem to be confused about how much water you need to climb up a miles - clue: you need a LOT of water), kids knocking out parts of the trail switchbacks and other bad-kid-related mayhem.

The hike was beautiful though! And hot! I was sweaty in shorts and a tank when we finished.

After the hike we jaunted about the mountains. We drove Independence Pass, which is twisty and curvy and features the wrecks of old gold-mining communities. We visited Leadville -
the highest incorporated city in the United States.

The drive was also beautiful, but freezing. I shivered in my Turkey Trot hoody. Brrrrrr!

Our drive ended at Rocky Mountain National Park. We pulled past lucky Winding Rivers campsite 29 as the sun set and then we backed up to get back to the spot. We passed a MOOSE. A moose eating grass!

I freaked out, but the moose was nice enough. It crept about eating more grassy stuff and then shooed itself away. What a good moose!