Colorado Trip, Day 4: Rabbit Ears Pass

On our fourth and final day in Colorado, we did a short hike at Rabbit Ears Pass.  We didn't actually go all the way up though, because we were hoping to make it back in time to go tubing (which ended up not happening anyway because the Yampa river was too high and rough).

There were patches of snow on the trail to the Rabbit Ears rocks, and Heidi made it a point to frolic in each one.

This entire hike was only a little over two hours long, but we saw some beautiful views of other mountains and lots of little streams and flower patches on the way.

On the drive to the trail, we stopped at some overlooks of Catamount lake; the first few photos are of this lake and its valley.


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A little panoramic movie of Catamount lake.


Catamount lake.


Catamount lake.


Catamount lake.


Catamount lake.


Heidi playing in the snow.


Heidi playing (playing dead?) in the snow.


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Heidi playing in the snow.


Kim checkin' out the Rabbit Ears.


The rabbit ears of Rabbit Ears Pass.



A tiny waterfall I shot from underneath a log.


There was this big cabbage patch on the hike up the mountain.


More cabbage.


There were lots of little flowers like this white one.


The photo doesn't really do it justice, but the fields were blanketed in little yellow flowers.


That pointy guy is known as shark fin mountain.



Heidi posing in the snow for Kim.


The urge to dig her nose into the snow is far stronger than the will to pose nicely. Fortunately the nose-digging is more entertaining.


Heidi playing dead again, bared teeth and stiff legs and all.



Nice form.


A very snowy mountain range in the distance.


Most of the numerous yellow flowers were this kind. They bloom facing downwards and the petals curl around all freakishly.


Here's a little stream we crossed.


Good girl!


I didn't think my camera would be able to handle the extreme dynamic range of this scene, but it managed to expose it pretty nicely. You can see Heidi at the bottom of the dark half.


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Heidi playing in the little stream.


Many/most of the little streams were snow-fed.


That's me.



In the next few shots, you'll see Heidi swimming in this little pond.


Here's one of the freakish yellow flowers before blooming.


I threw snowballs into this pond and Heidi chased after them, then chomped them to bits.


The pond was deep enough that she had to swim to get to the middle, but in the middle there was a rock she stood on.


Then she started crying when she realized it was just one small rock, and she'd have to get off and back into the deep water.


Snowball-chasing action shot.