Steamboat Springs

 After spending a (per usual) awesome weekend skiing at Steamboat Springs, we pullover on the side of the road to take a few photos of the mountains around us. Word from the wise...never pull over on a snowy road without a clear indication of where the road ends. We ended up falling off the side of the road and even with all-wheel drive, we weren't able to get the car to pull itself out of the deep snow.

Luckily Steamboat Springs is full of rodeo-types and a nice man pulled some chains out of his gigantic truck and pulled us out pretty easily.

The initial reason we pulled over

Waiting for help

Not a bad place to be stuck at least

pretty mountains

more mountains and ranchland

pretty mountains

snowy creek

The Flatirons

 My favorite part of Boulder

December snow in the Flatirons

Sky Pond

Wildfires changed hiking plans this day so we had to go to Sky Pond instead. Not a bad substitute.

 loch lake

on the way to sky pond

icy climb to the pond

winds were howling!

sky pond

Quandary Peak

Finally succeeded in reaching the summit!

just above treeline...long way to go.

gnarles goatley guards quandary peak

 one of the views from the summit

 my summit panorama gets bombed

who doesn't love a summit whiskey?

Mt. Democrat

pikas are so cute. this little guy was pretty brave.

see?!

view on the way up

false summit!

alex about to see that we weren't really at the top yet...

here we go! summit!

view from the summit

group coming back down

The $100 hike

Although it was worth it, I don't advise stepping off the paths in Colorado. They're pretty strict about their Green Space laws...

Hall Ranch, CO

Aspen Extreme

You just can't beat fall in a Colorado aspen grove...

summertime as a "flatlander"

Despite the fact that I thought I was moving to the mountains, those who actually live in the mountains refer to residents of Boulder as "flatlanders."

 Roger's Pass

On the way to Heart Lake 

Glacial Bowl on the way to Heart Lake

 Looking down on the way up Mount Chiquita

Almost up Mount Chiquita

Mt. Chapin-Chiquita-Ypsilon. We were soooo close to getting to Ypsilon. I guess 2 outta 3 ain't bad. 

The crew taking a break from the endless winds!

View on the way down

Hiking up Quandary

My first mountain goat!! Quandary Peak

Pika on Quandary

 Looking up to the summit of Quandary

 

Sad that a storm popped up and kept us from getting to the summit of Quandary

Marmot!

Heading up to S. Arapahoe Peak

Crazy clouds popping up. 

View from S. Arapahoe Peak

Me and Jennifer at the summit of S. Arapahoe

S Arapahoe Peak

One last look at the summit of S. Arapahoe Peak.