ColoradoFest in the Sawatch Range | Day 1

[IntrepidXJ]

Friday, July 18, 2008

This last weekend Amanda and I headed down to Nathrop to meet up with the Colorado Chapter of NAXJA for a long weekend of explroing and relaxing in camp. While we were there, I managed to finish a few trails that I had tried to drive the year before but was unable to.

We got an early start on Friday morning and headed up to Mount Princeton. This was one of the trails I had started the year before but ran out of daylight and decided to turn around before I reached the top.

Driving towards Mount Princeton



Mount Antero from the top of the Mount Princeton Trail



After making our way back down we headed up to Hancock Lakes for some lunch.

Passed by the Allie Belle Mine...it's in a bit worse shape than it was last year



Unnamed mountain from the Hancock townsite



Unfortunately, by the time we made we made it to the parking area for Hancock Lakes, it started raining so we decided not to take the hike this time. We ate our lunch and then continued up and over Hancock Pass.

Down the pass



While we were driving over Hancock Pass, the rain stopped so we went to the Alpine Tunnel so that we could hike around and explore the area.

Alpine Tunnel station



Turntable



After hiking back to the Jeep we made our way over Cumberland Pass and to the town of Tin Cup



Tincup Pass was not open because of some large snow drifts, so we continued on to Taylor Park and then over Cottonwood Pass back to Buena Vista. We met up with the rest of the ColoradoFest attendees for a good dinner at the Coyote Cantina in Johnson Village before heading back to the campground for the evening.