Ahh, the famous last words. Yes, Austin and I went hiking this weekend and an one hour hike turned into six hours. Oh the adventures we will have in Colorado!
So we decided to hike "Crag Crest" Trail which is on the Grand Mesa. (The Grand Mesa is the largest flat top mountain in the world and averages around 10,000 feet in elevation). The map says that the route is 10.3 miles. We thought, "10 miles! Shoot we can walk that in 2 hours or so." So we packed some water, a few nectarines, and we started off.
We started at the East Trailhead (not knowing that it is the hardest
route to take) and the trail immediately started heading upwards. However, we were enjoying the beautiful scenery and remarking that the elevation wasn't affecting us at all, to really pay much attention.
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| Upper Eggleston lake |
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| Fall foliage along the trail |
As we later found out, the trail climbs from 10,150 feet at Eggleston Lake to 11,189 feet along the crest. We were literally switchbacking up the mountain.
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| Austin waiting for me to catch up. |
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| A view of the lake from way up above. |
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| Yup, we were going to climb all the way to the top. |
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| Me, taking a break and trying to catch my breath. I was still smiling at this time, not for much longer. |
After about 1 1/2 hours of hiking straight up, we finally made it to the top. The views were spectacular!! I was praising God and singing out His name because the beautiful creation that He had created all around us. We spent some time up at the top eating our nectarines and enjoying the views.
"I wonder how long it will take to do the rest of the loop?" At this time, we thought that we had already hiked maybe 4-5 miles of the entire trail (really it was more like 1 mile). So we thought that we would walk along the crest for just a bit more, start the descent, and be back at the car within another hour or so.
But the crest kept climbing....we thought we were at the top, but as we topped a "hill" of rocks, we would then see another hill that we would have to climb. It just kept going.
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| View of the bookclift mountains from the top. |
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| How many lakes can you count? There are over 300 on the Mesa. |
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| The steep trail. |
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| This picture really shows the fall colors. The Aspen trees were a beautiful gold. |
Then the trail tried to trick us. We would come to patches that looked level as they crossed a "prairie". We would be encouraged "Yes, we are starting to descend, we must be at the end." But of course, it would just start to rise again. Up and down. Up and down. Burning thighs. Up and down. But still, beautiful views. :)
We finally turned the corner and realized that the 6.5 mile crest portion had taken us around 4 hours to complete. We were exhausted. We were also very hungry. Considering we thought we were only going to hike for a few hours, our lunch was still in the car. We also were starting to run low on water. According to the map we only had 3.4 miles to the car. The map made it look kind of flat. "Great," we thought, "we will finish the descent, cross the lower fields, and be at the car within an hour." Oh, how I laugh at that now....
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| A deer that crossed our path on the lower section. |
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| 4 deer that stood very proudly while I took multiple pictures of them. |
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| The high prairie grass that the trail cut through. |
It was about this time that we started getting lapped, yes lapped by other groups that were also doing the entire loop. We had passed them on the crest and now we were passing them on the lower part. That makes it seem like we had the same pace...but that is deceiving (as is the whole trail). See, they had started on the west side which has a much more gradual assent. They had also started about two hours after we started. Yup, we were over two hours behind these other hikers. "You are almost there," one group said, "only 2 to 3 more miles." At those words I promptly sat down. I just couldn't go on anymore.
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| A great view of the aspen trees turning color. |
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| We actually hiked to the top of that rock. This picture was taken about a mile from the end looking back at our amazing journey. |
For the last mile, I have no pictures. The sun was starting to go behind the rocks we had climbed, we were really hungry, and we had run out of water. I was on the verge of tears multiple times and Austin was playing encourager to just keep me moving. I started singing songs about heaven and figured that I would be there much sooner than later. Austin just kept pushing me along.
Finally, we rounded a corner, and there....the most beautiful color of brown....a beacon in a storm...a marker that returned my smile....there was the end of the trail. Only 1/4 mile hike straight down, back to the car. We had made it.
So we survived. A little over 6 hours later, we sat in the parking lot, eating our very warm picnic lunch, and drinking the extra water that I had in the car. We relived the high and low moments of the trip. We praised each other for completing the trek. And we stood taller. Because unbeknownst to us at the time, we had just completed one of the more difficult trails in the area. Austin said that "2012 Elizabeth is going to look back on this trip and laugh at 2011 Elizabeth." He might be right. But I don't know if I will ever do the loop again to find out.
But hey, don't you think the pictures were worth it! :)
Off to seek new Colorado adventures,
Elizabeth
