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| Tallest hump on the right is Mt Bierstadt at 14,060 feet high. This was taken ~1:45pm as we were heading home. | Here's what it looked like at 8am when we started hiking. | About a mile up the trail, still in the willows. Parking lot is just above the blue lake. Trail goes down past the lake, crosses a creek and comes back up - here we're only back at the elevation of the parking lot. 2.5 miles and 2,500 feet elevation gain to go. | We parked about 7:30, lot was full by 8am with folks parking on the road and the lot on the west side of the road. | Bob | ||
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| Higher up here, nearly to 12,000 feet. | Looking up at Mt Bierstadt, still a long ways to go up. | Bob coming up the trail, same blue lake and parking lot in the distance. | Looking up hill. | Much higher up here! This trail is normally _packed_ with people, but the Guenella Pass road from I-70 is closed from a rockslide earlier this summer so we had to drive highway 285 south past Bailey to get here from the south, guessing most folks decided to hike elsewhere. | ||
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| Getting closer to the top, less than a thousand feet vertical to go. | Woo-hoo at the top! Looking south-east. | Looking east to Mt Evans, another 14er. | Woo-hoo made it up a 14er! Took us 3 hours up, 2:15 down. | |||
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| I _think_ the twin peaks are Grays and Torreys, another pair of 14ers to the north-west. | Peanut butter sandwich on top of Mt Bierstadt, with Mt Evans in the background. | Apricots on top of Mt Bierstadt, with Mt Evans in the background. | On the middle right you can see the road up to Mt Evans. Since you can drive up to the top, I've never hiked it. | Long ways down to a gorgeous lake. Not quite as steep of a dropoff as the Longs Peak trail. | ||
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| Looking south to Pikes Peak (another 14er you can drive up) in Colorado Springs, about 100 miles south. Love the visibility in Colorado! | Lots of folks up top here, about 11:30 now. | Official survey marker for the top of Bierstadt. | Long ways down back to the parking lot. | |||
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| Most of the way back down, gorgeous backdrop. | Back at the parking lot with clouds shading Bierstadt. | A few minutes later, mostly sunny. | |||