Gohan's 12th Birthday

Gohan eats a cupcake and we sing to him.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Sun breaks through the clouds near trail ridge road.

There, they're, their

We saw this signage at the Lazy Lizard Hostel in Moab, Utah.

Catio Enjoyment

Zilla demonstrates proper catio use. Her favorite technique is to strike a comfortable pose and supervise as the help toils over the lawn.

Come Back to Texas!



Treasure Falls near Wolf Creek Pass, Colorado. This is a

gorgeous 100 foot high fall close to the Continental Divide.



Mystery Melon: I kept spotting strange patches of vegetation along the highway on our drive out of Texas.

Jeff promised he would stop and let me investigate on our way back. I was surprised to find what seem to be

melons growing along the highway. Are these the products of melons that fell off a train or truck? If you know

the origins of these misplaced melons, please comment!

Faux Falls



My parents enjoying a view of Faux Falls near Moab, Utah. The falls are man made and flow through a tunnel

from Moab's favorite swimming hole, Mill Creek.




Faux Falls was created in 1980,

to fill the reservoir below it.



Don't miss the little lizard hiding at the lower left corner.

The La Sal mountains of our previous day's adventure peek from behind the red rock walls above Moab. We met

a local artist as she stood and painted this vista. I thought it was a nice view myself. I've had a great time using

my camera's panoramic stitching abilities on this trip.

That's SO Moab!

Glissading Down the La Sals

We took a short cut and cut a few miles off of our descent from 12,000 feet up in the La Sals. We had several different takes on how to slide without a proper sled. Jeff's first approach involved a convieniently shaped rock. My dad and I opted to use our raincoats. Kudos to Columbia for creating coats that could hold up for this abuse!

Treasure Hunt on a Volcano




Jeff heads out across a cornice atop the La Sals, a range of extinct volcanoes near Moab, Utah.

 


Carnivorous snow claims another victim every five minutes.
Though it can be heart wrenching to watch a loved one being consumed,
the best course of action is to sit on a nearby log and enjoy the spectacle...



As we climbed into the thin air, we were forced to leave

behind those who were too hindered by heavy reading

materials...

My father, retired petroleum exploration geologist, 

Christopher Kierst, displays the rock he found in his shoe.

Luckily, these deer decided not to attack us.



The view from the top - somewhere above Miners Basin. The National Forest Service barricaded the old mine
road, left it off the maps and changed the name from Gold Basin to Miners Basin. My dad calls this
"lying on maps," I call it an opportunity for adventure. Through the trees, you can see the switchbacks
of the 40-year-old road highlighted by snow.
We skipped the switchbacks and slid down the snow on our descent.



Inching along at 12,000 feet, we stumble up the last

switchback. To get to the drilling site everyday, my dad's

driver had to back the truck up every other switchback.

The hairpin turns were too narrow to drive the three-mile

road forward!



Among the summits, somewhere under the 30 foot cornice

in the foreground is Panama Vent. The vent is the source

of the amethyst crystals we're searching for.



HAMMER TIME! Jeff enthusiastically cracked open

every rock he could get his hands on looking for crystal.



Forty years ago, my dad worked with a team of exploratory miners who drilled core samples from this 12,000
foot peak. His foot rests on the drilling head. They didn't find the minerals they were drilling for and we
didn't find the amethyst we searching for, but we did find adventure and a great way to celebrate Father's
Day and my dad's retirement.

 



We found these rocks on our way up the mountain.

The blue-green color indicates the presence of copper

in the stones and that we are approaching the vents at

the top of the extinct volcano.

The Lazy Lizard Hostel

We're in Moab, Utah now. The place we're staying has cats.

Wool Market - Estes Park

1, 2, 3?, 4? HORNS!? We were surprised to see a pen

full of four (and sometimes more) horned sheep. These

Jacob Sheep are an ancient breed mentioned in the Bible.

I thought this was an especially good-

looking show llama.



I was really excited to see this Paco-Vicuna. PVs are more closely related to wild

South American vicunas than normal alpacas. In Peru, we saw wild vicunas on the
altiplano. They are delicate, shy and rare. Their wool is the softest, warmest, rarest

and most valuable in the world. One touch and you'll understand...



I spotted this prairie dog pup roaming alone next to the
parking lot. We were really worried about him, but when

we left him, he had reunited with a sibling and that made

us feel a little better.

After Jeff's photography course in Boulder ended, I was anxious to show him around Rocky Mountain N.P. so he could see where I'd been spending my days. On the way up, we had to stop to poke around the Estes Park Wool Market.

Dysbreakfia?

Does the cook wear his hat on his butt? Jeff got this egg mcmuffin at a Mcdonald's in Louisville,CO.

Chasing a Thousand Waterfalls

After, the previous day’s misadventures, I decided to take it easy and just spend the day exploring the Endovalley area. The weather was gloomy in Boulder but up at alpine elevations in the park, a blue sky beckoned with fluffy white clouds. I had a vague goal of finding a steep creak flowing out of a hanging valley called Thousand Falls. But, once again, record-breaking snowmelt made the creek impassable. According to the news, this is the story all over the Rockies.

Water washing out bridge planks.

I sat and painted some watercolors of the creek. Later I hiked up to Chasm Fall, walking behind a velvet-antlered elk part of the way. On my way down, I chatted with some German hikers – total opposites of the Hip-Hop Hikers from yesterday. These guys refused to walk across snow without crampons and, in the current conditions, that limited them to hiking only on roads!

I stopped to explore boulder field with house sized boulders and discovered a cozy room, complete with a fire ring, beneath the boulders. Looking across the valley from atop the boulders, I could see flashes of white water tumbling down from the hanging valley. It was my Thousand Falls. It wasn’t the close-up view I’d wanted, but it was a nice surprise.






A Shooting Star flower.



Just below Chasm Falls.

Detail from Chasm Falls



The room under the boulders - it was

surprisingly spacious. A group of college
showed up to climb the boulders as I left.



Thousand Falls is the whitish line snaking

through the trees.



Zoom view of Thousand Falls



I know this photo isn't great, but I was really pleased to see

and catch a photo of this Rocky Mountain Bluebird!

One of many beetle-killed trees

My Death Defying Hike to Loch Vale

It started out innocently enough, a hike to Mills Lake - an alpine lake touted as one of the park's most beautiful. I start out a little late (noonish) from the Glacier Gorge trail head, stopping along the way for photos of Alberta Falls. The trail is snowy in spots and hard to follow. At one point I check my GPS track on my nifty phone app and realize that I was off trail for a half mile and then rejoined the trail without even noticing.

About halfway up the mountain I chat with another hiker who warns me that the bridge to Mills is out. "But," he continues, "a mountain goat and her kids are up ahead on a cliff." "Ha! A bridge out," I think to myself, "maybe that's a deal breaker for this guy, but I will find a way around."

Up ahead I find the cliff, minus the goats. I stop for a break. As I rest, a head appears over the summit. After awhile another, smaller form appears. I LOVE mountain goats. They have such sweet expressions despite the harsh lives they endure. She watches me for awhile and eventually disappears back over the cliff top.

I continue on, past a sign warning of the washed out bridge and then there it is. Sure enough, the little bridge is cracked in half and a torrent of snowmelt rushes over the top. I walk upstream and consider crossing on the snow that bridges the creek. But the snow is really too thin and the idea seems reckless.

I decide to backtrack to the last fork in the trail and head up to Loch Vale instead, just because I like the name. At some point I realize that I haven't seen anyone for a very long time. The trail is getting worse. Suddenly, my right leg punches completely through the snow. I climb out, check my leg and move on.

Finally I enter the bottom of a long, steep chute. High stone walls form a hallway leading up into the sky. As I start up it, I hear rushing water. At first I can't tell where it is and then I realize that I'm on top of it. I'm walking on snow over a raging torrent and I have no idea how thick the snowpack is. Very ironic to have decided not to walk across the snow bridge, only to end up walking a quarter mile up a creek on snow by accident. Since I'm already halfway up the chute, I decide to keep going and hope that there is a better way down.

Then at last, I struggle out of the chute and into a gorgeous crown of peaks. Loch Vale sits in the center, a frozen jewel.

Clouds begin to gather as I catch my breath. I begin a mental list of all of the stupid mistakes I’ve made on the hike, "Wow, 10,000 feet up, snow everywhere, no fleece jacket, alone, a storm coming and the way down is scary at best." I decide to rest before I proceed to freak out. I check my GPS and I'm relieved to find that once again, I'd been off-trail. Of course the motherly Park Service provided a kinder, gentler route than my death-trap chute.

I eat, take some pictures and start looking for the official trail. Then I hear a whoop from the top of the Chute of Death. Three forms dressed in sagging shorts, converse tennies and sideways caps appear on top of a 30 foot wall of snow over the lake. I call out to them and warn them that the snow they're standing on is sheering off like icebergs into the lake. They make their way around the lake and I point out the actual trail to them. I cross paths with the "Hip-Hop Hikers" several times on my way back down. To them, the trail is a suggestion. They whoop and slide their way down the mountain. When I ask them if the Chute of Death freaked them out they say, "Not really." Either they are lying or just too dumb to realize how dangerous it really was.



Alberta Falls



You know the snow's deep when
you're looking down at the trail signs!

 


Before the hike got scary...

 


The mountain goat is the white dot
to the right on the cliff top.



Close-up of goat.



Bridge to Mills Lake



Alternate bridge? Snow bridges the creek.



A Steller's Jay

 


The Chute of Death - you can see a little bit of the
stream flowing over the boulder in the center. This photo
was taken about 2/3 of the way up the chute.

 


Loch Vale - gorgeous!



Here you can see the creek that flows out of the Loch and
into the Chute of Death.







This little guy offered to share my lunch.

 

















A thirty foot crumbling wall of snow, this is what the
"Hip-Hop Hikers" were walking on...