Handies Peak

This shot is taken from around 11,550 feet in the northwest facing basin of Handies Peak, called the American Basin. It was raining when we drove up here from Redcloud & Sunshine Peaks. It's always fun setting up a tent in the rain :(

Toby was so exhausted he didn't seem to mind the bumpy 4WD road up to our campsite. We practically had to carry him over to the tent.

The wildflowers were absolutely amazing! I think we chose one of the best weekends to be hiking during the crest of the wildflowers. This is shot from our tent since we pretty much relaxed/slept until early morning.

O.K. since it's been awhile since I've blogged, I again got these out of order. With that said, here we are on the summit of Handies Peak about 2 hours after we left the trailhead. The views from Handies were incredible, mountain peaks stretched along the horizon in every direction. We took a 365 degree picture shot, we'll see if we can actually get it to turn out.

Here we are on day 3 of our EPIC weekend and Toby and I are pushing up to the saddle where we'll turn north (left) and head up to the summit. The trail was obviously very well travelled and maintained we almost could have worn flip flops (except it was a little chilly for that)

Looking down from the saddle toward the west, where we had come up, we get a great view of the small mountain lake we passed earlier. This will be definite stop for Toby dog on the way down. He's earned a frolick in the lake.

Brian went for an evening walk, so I was testing my camera skills and captured what I call a watercolor shot of Brian amongst the wildflowers. Pretty cool I think.

Brian was capturing the 365 degree views so I was trying to duck out of the way, but it apparently didn't work very well. It just looks like I'm "watering the rocks".

Here's our individual poses on top. We acted quickly because as you can see behind Brian a storm was rolling in very quickly.

Handies Peak sits at 14,048 feet. It is the 40th highest peak out of the 54 or 55 fourteeners, depending on who's counting. It is also located in the San Juan Range, 15 miles southwest of Lake City, and other nearby towns are Silverton, Telluride, and Ouray. The route from the American Basin Trailhead is 6 miles long, gaining around 2,500 feet of elevation. Surprisingly we scampered up the peak with no trouble, although we were motivated in trying to peak before the storm crept up. Definitely something to be cautious of, but we could tell we had plenty of time. And, actually the storm dissipated upon our descent.

Toby is an awesome hiking partner. He mostly stays on the trail and is in amazing shape. We're so grateful he's been apart of our life for the last almost 8 years! He's very photogenic too!