With Zach up from Austin, we thought he’d like to see what Colorado looks like, from the top.  So we hiked up 13,223 foot Mt. Audubon today.  The trailhead starts near Brainard Lake.  That’s Mt Audubon in the upper right of this photo as Zach, Ellie and Brit sit on the bridge rail overlooking the lake.

The girls tended to stop to smell the roses often enough that the 9 mile round trip took us over 5 hours.

This photo above shows how close Ellie gets to the flowers for a pic, as she lies among the Alpine Buttercups at over 12,000 feet.

The group consisted of Ellie, Brit, her friend Tabitha, and of course Zach – doing his impression of Michael Nesmith from the Monkees.

Tabitha’s a hoot.  Tabitha and her sisters are all named for characters from the TV show Bewitched.

This was Zac’s highest climb ever.  He and Ellie contemplated the achievement looking west at 13,000 feet.

As we returned to Brainard Lake, Ellie tried walking to this rock without getting wet.

Zach joined her, demonstrating some impressive balance as he walked across the submerged rock path.

Amazingly, they made it without too much water getting inside their boots.

Pretty sure everyone enjoyed themselves on this hike.  I would say I had the best time of all though.  This was my first big hike in the mountains this summer.  Hope to hike more.