Hiking the N. Cottonwood Trail

We managed to take another hike, this time heading west of Buena Vista to one of the mountains called called Mt. Harvard (one of the Collegiate Mountains - a 14 teener).  The trailhead was buried deep in the foothills of the mountain and the road was paved, then dirt packed, then very rocky.  But we managed to get to the trailhead and wow, the number of cars/trucks/jeeps parked there, amazing.

Drive up to the trailhead of Mt. Harvard

Parking lot full, ATVs, horse trailers, cars, trucks - and
no facilities to go potty.  Go figure.

The trailhead was for a number of hikes, some of them heading up and over Mt. Harvard, some of them to alpine lakes.  Our goal was to hike a tidge along Cottonwood Creek, just enjoying being outdoors.

Trailhead, marked sort of, hard to find the beginning point

Saw these 2 boys, figured they knew where trail was, followed them

First bridge to cross, notice the hikers laying on the bank to left

Very well marked, lots of traffic coming up the trail as well as coming back to the parking lot.  We even were passed by a group of 9 horses, the lead rider's horse was pretty spooked when it came on us.  We were on a ledge with a drop off of over 100 feet, pretty steep, not much place for us to get off the trail but we managed.  How she was able to keep that horse from bucking or even dropping down the cliff, I was impressed.

Love the sound of rushing water, birds singing, smell of pine

Trail well traveled 

Where horse/riders came upon us, notice drop off and then hill?
Where do we go to get out of their way? 

Cliff straight down about 100 feet 

Recovered enough to get the back of the last horse and an adult
hiker (chaperone of the kids on horses)

Cottonwood creek is a pretty stream, could hear the roaring of the water even if we could not see it.  Small cascade falls every now and then.  Just real pretty.  Some of hikers we spoke to were coming back from a couple day's hike over the mountain, camping out somewhere 'up there' in over 13,000 feet elevation.  The nights had to be really cold.  We did not go far, by the time we turned around it was 5:30.  Knew we had to get back to trailhead and then drive back to BV.

Every now and then could peak through and see mountains ahead

Pretty, our spot we rested and had snacks

You see the strangest things, wow.

This woman was beautiful, classic western gal

With the Weston Pass Forest Fire raging about 30 miles from us, and we were able to help our next door neighbors (next door in our winter AZ hideaway) evacuate their summer home in Fairplay and seeing the impact of what fires can do, we are rethinking where we may someday have a summer get-away when we are done traveling.  Even though we love the forest, do not want to be near it if there was a fire.

Day 2 of Weston Pass File, in Fairplay, CO

That night

Day 3 of fire, not good