Road Trip to Colorado

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Growing up my sister and I always talked about taking off on a road trip adventure someday, so for her graduation gift I decided we were going to do it! Our cousin who is like a sister to us and also graduated this year was able to come along and we had a fantastic week in the breathtaking mountains of Colorado. Many memories were made and many laughs enjoyed together.

 

 Our adventure began at Sioux Falls Park in South Dakota.

I love this picture of my sister helping my cousin across.

 

 

As we traveled south we encountered some wandering bison.

The last one was only about 10 feet from our car.

 

 

Once in Colorado we stopped for a visit at Garden of the Gods.

 

My sister feels at home wherever there are things to climb on. :)

I love the clouds behind me in this picture:

 

 

 

 I was able to get both Garden of the Gods

and Pikes Peak in this one!

 

 

"Lewis and Clark explore the West"

 

 

 I love the clouds touching the hills in this one.

 

 

 

Indian Paintbrush

 

 

Domestic bison graze in the shadow of Mt. Princeton

 

The rivers were high and fast around Mt. Princeton. My aunt, who we stayed with for several days during our journey, said this year has been the rainiest out of the fifteen years that she's lived in Colorado. The river water is mainly melted snow from the mountaintop and is therefore freezing cold!

I really like this one of my cousin.

The Aspen trees in the foreground make this very beautiful.

 

 

Mt. Princeton is in the background of this one, veiled in clouds.

 

 We hiked around Chalk Lake, which involved wading through the icy water on several occasions.

 

 

 

 

 Between the two hills is just a glimpse of the St. Agnes waterfall that we had intended to hike to. The trail was closed because the rivers are too high.

 

 

Partway through our hike around Chalk Lake the clouds began pouring rain. It made our climb over this landslide of rocks somewhat slippery. A true adventure.

 

 

Elena the Majestic Mountaineer

 

 

We decided to take a different route home to our aunt's house from Mt. Princeton and ended up driving through a magnificent canyon!

Doing a little climbing around!

 

We climbed to the top of a big rock formation in the canyon just as the sun was going down, giving me these cool silhouettes of my sister and cousin.

 

 

We are so small in this world.

 

 

Our aunt took us on a scenic hike near her house.

Here is me, her and her dog, Elena, and my cousin.

 

The view from the top is awesome.

 

Elena and my cousin on the zip line at Cave of the Winds

 

I took some pictures of the scenery around my aunt's house during our very brief period of down time one day.

 

 A spring azure butterfly! They are tiny little wonders.

 

A view of Pikes Peak from a house we spent a lovely evening at.

 

 Pikes Peak at sunset