Mt. Garfield...Conquered!

Warren and I decided to go for a hike today, and it was quite a challenging one at that! We climbed Mt Garfield, which rises to an elevation of 6,765 feet above the town of Palisade, Colorado. Heading east from the main trail head, we hiked the Gearhart Mine Trail, which was a "gentler" climb up the mountain. After our descent down the main trail (basically straight down the mountain), we decided it was also a more scenic trail.


This area is known as the Bookcliffs. These sand and stone cliffs are beautiful in a very mysterious sort of way. They look very unforgiving, but at the same time are so texturally interesting. There are also wild horses in this area, but unfortunately we didn't see any this trip. The following photograph shows Interstate 70 way down below!


This guy is really contemplating, don't you think?



A bit of quilt inspiration..........


We were almost to the top of the mountain, when we came across ice and snow on the "trail", which was basically rock climbing. After a few tense moments.....and a bit of coaxing from Warren, we made it to the top! My camera was in my backpack so it wouldn't get damaged from hitting rocks..........or falling off my shoulder, so no pictures of that part of the adventure. It was quite a view from the top, looking west over the Grand Valley.



After spending way too much time getting the camera propped up on rocks and sticks, I managed to get to the pose in time! This is a view facing east from the top of Mt. Garfield, with the Grand Mesa in the background.


So, we made it up the mountain........now we need to get back down!