Mile Hi - New Things

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, we camped in San Isabel National Forest this weekend. The forest contains 19 of the state's 54 fourteeners, peaks over 14,000 feet (4,300 m) high, including Mount Elbert, the highest point in Colorado. San Isabel is 1 of 11 national forests in the state of Colorado and contains the Sawatch Range, the Collegiate Peaks, and Sangre de Cristo Range. Collegiate Peaks contains 5 of the area's 14,000-foot (4,300 m) peaks are named for famous universities and colleges, including Mt Harvard, Mt Oxford, Mt Yale, Mt Princeton and Mt Columbia. We decided we wanted to hike to the top of Mt Yale , which the 21st tallest peak in Colorado and the 5th highest in the Collegiate Peaks since it was about 30 minutes away from our campsite. Mt Yale is considered a Class 2 difficulty and is 14,196' tall. You begin the hike at the trailhead at Denny Creek at 9,900' and gain 4,300' in elevation, in a 10 mile round-trip hike. It was a beautiful, ...

I didn't have time to post couple nights since we were camping, therefore I'm posting this late as this occurred yesterday (Sat 6/16/12). We went camping in San Isabel National Forest this weekend from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. The San Isabel National Forest is located in south-central Colorado and is comprised of 1,117,131 acres. There are 43 developed campgrounds. We camped in Chaffee County, close to Buena Vista CO. Many visitors camp here and experience daytime activities like hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, white water rafting, and off-roading. Arkansas River and many paths are close by. since there is a state-wide fire ban (due to dry conditions and wild fires) we went downtown Buena Vista during the day and Mt Princeton Hot Springs Resort in Nathrop CO in the evening. A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the ...