Pingree Park

See all those little buildings down there?  That's Pingree Park, where I stayed for four weeks because of a required field course I had to take for my major.

Jo came up to visit me the second to last weekend I was there.  We were planning on taking a quick backpacking trip into RMNP anyway, but since I got free passes to the park through Pingree, it was super convenient to head out straight from the cabins.

After leaving Pingree we hiked up a mighty purdy trail.  We were on the way to Mummy Pass in the northern-most edge of RMNP.

"The mummy," as it's commonly called, is a pass that, well, looks like a mummy.  You can't see it that great in the picture, but the flattish looking pass in the backgound is the mummy.

The trail after leaving Pingree was well used but very well taken care of.  People fell away after we hit the fork that would take us to Rocky Mountain.

I learned a ton of cool stuff while at Pingree, but one of my favorite things I learned about were Vaccinium berries.  Otherwise known as wild blueberries, they are amazingly delicious, even if it is a ton of work to collect a handful.  They were out in full force, so Jo and I couldn't help stopping to pick them along the way.  They were so addictive!  We probably spent at least two hours over the course of the hike picking Vaccinium berries.

This is where the trail split from the main trail off to the side trail that would take us up to the Mummy.

Normally around this time I insert pictures of wildflowers we found along the way.  This hike is going to be a little different, since it was the mushrooms that were blooming like crazy.  We had been getting massive amounts of rain the whole time I was there, and the shrooms were just lovin' the moisture.  It's a shame that mushrooms weren't one of the topics we learned about at Pingree, or I could tell you the names of these babies. Observe...

The trail went up and up and up.  Even though we were climbing the whole time, the grade was pretty gradual so it didn't feel too difficult. Eventually, we made our way out of the forest and into alpine meadows.  The view from the top was lovely.  If you look far enough, you can see into Wyoming.

Shortly after the above picture was taken we reached the pass and crossed over into Rocky Mountain National Park.  Neither of us had ever been to the North end of the park, and it turns out that its absolutely spectacular.  Because it's so isolated, the trails are little used and there's not a soul in site.  In fact, it's the first time that Jo's seen a RMNP trail start to fade.

No, Jo didn't drown me in a shallow pool and leave my body for scavengers to pick apart.  I'm drinking. We took advantage of snow melt that was being produced by a melting snowfield that was just a stone's throw away and drank some good ol' pure springwater.  It was delicious.

From this point on our hike was downhill.  We lost just about as much elevation as we'd gained by the time we made it to our campsite, but more on that later.  For now, just enjoy one of the many alpine lakes we passed as we hiked along.

This wasn't our destination.  It was just a pretty valley off to our left that Jo thought picture worthy.

This was the trail.  We walked through a big patch of shrubby willows on marshy ground.  My feet got soaked.  The willows were about as high as we were in places.  Around this point I was getting tired and wanted to get to the campsite, but still couldn't help admiring the lovely view.  The pines on this side of the pass seemed to be doing just fine for themselves as far as fighting off the nasty pine beetle goes, so it was a nice change of pace to see a healthy, green forest.

And, our campsite.  I guess we both decided to stop taking pictures after the willow shot above because we walked for probably another couple of miles before reaching it.  There were two campsites in the vicinity, but the other was already taken by the time we got there, which was around 3 or 4.  Neither of could figure out why, since the campsite we ended up with was the better of the two.  Not only was it farther from the trail, but it was steps away from a lovely creek, which Jo and I promptly set off to explore... We do love creeks.

We took off our shoes and sat on the rocks and tried to keep our feet in the freezing water for as long as possible.  We both could have stayed there forever, but alas.  We had some housekeeping to do.

We set up the tent and made our beds for the night. Jo was nice enough to cook dinner, which was an awesome concoction he had come up with that consisted of Israeli couscous, spices, nuts and dried fruit.

The chef at work:

We took some time to goof around in front of the camera after eating.  Then, it was to the tent to read and talk and enjoy the solitude.

The next morning we woke up by splashing our faces with the frigid stream water.  I've said it before and I'll say it again: there is NO better way to wake up.

We had a nice, slow morning.  Mainly we just lounged around and didn't rush to get out of the campsite.  Initially the plan was to hoof it to Muir Lake, which would only be a three or four mile hike, but neither of us felt like it.  We had thought the hike to get to our campsite was only six miles, but it had turned out to be eight, so we figured we'd get plenty of walking in.

Eventually we did take off.  We wanted to be back to Pingree in time for dinner.  On the way back we spotted the lovely lady below.  Alces alces, to be exact.  And, speaking of being exact, we weren't the ones who spotted her.  We passed a group of hikers who pointed her out to us.  We passed them quickly since there were two young boys with them, and they were the only other hikers we saw that day.

There's just something about a field of flowers that makes you want to strike a crazy pose.

Jo has a thing for mountain streams, and takes a picture of just about every one we pass.  He can't seem to help himself; it's a mountain stream compulsion or something.

A parting shot of the way we had come.

 And a shot of where we were going...

This is the same valley we had passed the day before, only this time it was on our right.  It was around here that we spotted the Statue Moose.  He was a lovely large male up in the willow above us, watching us like a hawk.  Our admiration soon turned to awe that the big guy was just not budging.  He stared at us as if his life depended on it.  Very strange.  We left him standing like that.

These little lakes were so pretty!

For the record, Jo doesn't usually hop up on rocks and pose without some encouragment.  But he does it so well, doesn't he?

I'm not sure why we took a picture of this rockpile, but left it in because it reminds me of what just may be the largest marmot in the history of marmots.  We spotted him on the way up, but we wanted to see him again so badly on the way down that we had the camera out and ready.  The thing was HUGE.  We figured it must've been quite old to have grown to such a large size, so we dubbed him "Pappy."  Pappy, whereever you are: we hope you are warm and comfortable up on a rock somewhere.

There's a much smaller version of Pappy in the middle of this pic.  Marmota flaviventris.

Trail shot as we started heading down.

And another marmot.  Check out his domain.  That view!!!

The hike back was pleasant and easy, since it was all downhill.  We stopped several time to pick more Vaccinium berries.  When we got to the river, Jo decided to take a quick break...

...before giving himself a good ol' dunkin'.

We made it back to Pingree in time for dinner.

After dinner we took a walk on the trails around Pingree and ended up spotting this big guy, which was our third moose of the day.

He will always be remembered fondly as the munching moose.  We went back after dark to see if he was still there, and we saw only the tips of his antlers, as he had decided to lay down for a spell.  We did, however, clearly hear him munching away on the forage around him.  Very charming.