About a mile in. This trail is 7.4 miles round trip, with an elevation gain of 1,262 feet. There are other trails that connect to if you're feeling adventurous, but today I just went up and back. Here in the summertime, around 3:00 in the afternoon it's fairly common to have thunderstorms so it's a good idea to get going early. This morning I didn't start hiking until 11:15 am, and it looked a little dreary. Thankfully things cleared up by the time I got to the top and didn't get nasty again until I was back home.

The terrain of this trail varies a lot. The trail starts out in a desert setting, and then you climb up near red rocks cliffs. From there it opens up into meadows and spits you out on top in a fairly alpine environment with a view of Longs Peak (14,259 ft).

Finally, the top! That's Longs Peak off in the distance. Maybe I'll have photos of it from the top on Gypsy Journal someday.

I found a rock in the middle of the meadow at the top and enjoyed some oreos I brought. I meditated for a few and realized that the rock I was on had a nest of Bumble Bees below me. At first I thought they were wasps, but they weren't bugging me and had a nice rhythmic hum to their busy work. There were a lot of them buzzing in and out of the crags in the rock face. I thought it was pretty neat to see good bees buzzing around. :-)