September 4, 2010 Hiking Mount Bierstadt 14,060 feet

 
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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.

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