Summer in the Rockies - Mountain Climbing

There's not enough summer in the Colorado Rockies. I want to linger in the remaining warm days, taking advantage of weather that permits activities we'll miss this winter. We spent a few nights star gazing, and a few mornings sipping tea, on our deck. I have begun harvesting the vegetables that I planted months ago. My husband has his bathhouse on our mountain property halfway completed. What else is on our summer to-do list? Hiking!

One weekend, friends invited us to go hiking. When we arrived, they opened a map to Mount Huron.

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Colorado has 53 fourteeners - mountains with an elevation above 14,000 feet. My husband and I have climbed several, but that was a few years ago. When our friends unfurled the map, and we realized the hike they proposed, we both considered taking a less challenging hike to a lake.

Caught up in the youthful enthusiasm of the young adults present, and Donna's determination to summit her first 14er, we decided to hike to tree line.

Timberline, or tree line, is the elevation where trees no longer grow. In Colorado, that is around 11,000 - 12,000 feet. That's a respectable height to climb to on steep trails and in the oxygen thin air. 

​We reached the boulder field that defined tree line on Mount Huron. 

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After resting near a small mountain lake, we had three options. Continue on, wait at tree line for our friends to return from the summit, or return to camp. 

​My husband opted to wait at tree line. I continued to the summit. Below are photos of the view from the top.

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