The Lost Year- Colorado: The Hike, Take Two

The Van Nests, Matt, and I all wanted to take another hike, but weren't sure if we wanted to do a summit hike or try the waterfall hike again since we never actually hiked on the trail.  It was so pretty and we wanted to see if we would get closer to bigger waterfalls.  Ultimately we decided to take the same hike again, but this time my dad, aunt Shirley and Audrey joined us.  It was just as beautiful as it was the day before.  We never did get up close to the larger waterfall that we kept seeing from a distance, but it was my first valley hike and it was so neat to hike along the river between two mountains.  I just love this state.

Audrey, right after Matt told her he would carry her across the river and she refused.

Audrey, right after she realized the river was cold.

And Audrey, getting carried across the cold river to start the hike.

Audrey was a pretty good little hiker.  She made it almost all the way to the trail head on her own.

At the top, waiting for my dad, Shirley and Scott to meet up with us.  They took the trail that went right be the waterfalls, but since we had Audrey, we decided to just hike up the access road.

Still some pretty amazing views from the access road.

From the trail head.

Audrey started to have a bit of a rough time.  She was tired and she had outgrown the backpack, so she wasn't super comfortable.

Pretty telling of her attitude at that point.

We got her out and down by the water, though, and she perked up quite a bit.  Particularly after Matt told her he would carry her on his shoulders for awhile.

Into the valley

My mountain girl.

Lunch!

We had lunch at this really cool lookout over a waterfall.  About this time, though, we realized that a storm was coming and we were pretty exposed.  We booked it back to cover and made it before the thunder and lightening got bad, but Matthew's fear of being struck by lightening outweighed my desire to document the experience, so the pictures ended here.  Despite that, I think this may have been one of my all time favorite Colorado hikes.  Definitely top 5.  It was just amazingly beautiful.