weather in the midwest changes plans for many people

Katie's flight was cancelled so AA sent her to a "nearby" airport. We drove to Eagle Vail last night. The plane landed at midnight. We got home at 3 am Christmas morning. The good news is that we all made the 450 mile trek and are together for Christmas. The bad news...Katies luggage is still in AA land somewhere.

View Larger Map

Avalanche

Its been awhile since I posted anything.

We went snow shoeing above Red Mountain Pass today. The day was perfect, the snow just slightly less so. There are a few feet of snow on the ground at 11,000 feet. New, deep snow makes breaking trail quite a bit of a workout, so we took our time. We climbed up an old mine road from 11,000 to about 12,000 feet. We were hoping to ascend the ridge and then perhaps the summit...or not. It was a beautiful day and we just wanted to be outside. As the trail turned into the basin, we could see a few recent slide paths. We stayed in the trees, that being the safest route and found ourselves at the same level as this rather large slide. After taking a few pictures, we decided that the best route down, was the same one we took up!

This is a bit over exposed (I guess I left the camera at 1600 ISO) but it gives you the idea of the scale of the slide.

Better lighting. We are looking over at the slide.

You can see how far down the debris field is.

Looking back, a beautiful day.

Cute parents.

One last fall weekend

With our second Winter Storm predicted for this weekend I guess our fall days are coming to an end.

Riding Klondike Bluffs

Looking down into Lockhart Basin

Looking way down into the basin

Islands in the Sky

Riding towards the Henrys

Early season snow

Although nothing like what the Front Range of Colorado saw. We had our own little snow storm that will make cleaning up the garden a bit harder.

a wonderful fall weekend

With a three day weekend to do some serious recreating our thoughts of course centered around the canyons of Utah. Our list was culled down to just a few spots and in the end Canyonlands NP won out. Really no surprise there. It is one of my favorite places on the planet. Friday was spent driving, setting camp and riding in the grabens from Elephant Hill. Saturday was spent hiking a large 14 mile loop through the needles themselves and Sunday we rode out Lockhart basin. An incredible weekend in an incredible place.

Ladders...need I say more?

A contented look in the red rock desert

Riding the grabens

Mom riding up the trail...yes that is the trail.

shed is finished now its time to go a bike ride

The view from inside.

we are ready for some sun and some seeds

building the solar shed

Putting the trusses together.

putting the walls in place

siding!

Before the windows were placed

We are missing one piece before we can finish up. The missing part is being shipped and should be here soon. The finished product will be featured in a new blog post.

potato harvest

That is one big spud! We didn't get many but they were all large especially this 1.5 pound monster. (cell phone for scale)

Harvest time

What time is it?

Our Guatemala clock becomes a Zhangye China clock as Fran tries her hand at Chinese characters.

The literal translation is Middle Kingdom.

The backyard fire place with the first set of smores.

The summit of Jura Knob (12,614')

A Sunday arts and crafts day

A "chill" Sunday was the perfect day to get those bird houses painted as well as create the "to" signs for the back yard (reminiscent of the sign post on MASH). I spent the day taking out old fence posts.

Here the two creative minds of the operation

The first of the "to" signs for the sign post. Other signs will include: San Francisco, Zhangye Gansu, Fort Collins, Windham NH and Moab UT. Images will come later.

The finished products hidden among the greenery.

The two artists with their masterpieces.

What can I say?

Across the country

The last 3 weeks were spent driving to New England and back again. I can't say it enough...this is a big country!

above: Looking in the mirror with the fields of Kansas for a background

below: The moose of Bennington Vermont

walking the beach

the summit of Mt. Lafayette (5260 feet, almost Denver)

One of many covered bridges

After dinner rest

lobster night

you don't see these traffic signs just anywhere

home of Radar in MASH

Flower season

Last week was spent traversing the San Juan Mountains in search of this year's wildflowers. We started near Creede, backpacking into the La Garita Wilderness for an overnight stay at the Wheeler Geologic Area. From Creede we traveled to American Basin at the foot of Handies Peak for the traditional Columbine exhibition...we were not disappointed. Our last stop was in Gothic Colorado, home to the Rocky Mountain Biological Institute. WOW. Everything else paled in comparison to the flowers around Schofield Pass. Our route home then took us over Kebler Pass with another astounding display of this season's crop of wild flowers. The images that follow are just a small collection of pictures that really do not do the fields of flowers justice.

Mule's Ears

King's Crown

Larkspur

Sulphur flowers

Mountain Sunflower

La Garita Wilderness and Fran

Iris

Colorado Blue Columbine