Wyoming/Colorado - 2017

A beautiful Wyoming sunset as I drive down a lonely road. Just ignore the reflection of my windshield...and the fact that I was taking a picture while driving...and the fact that I was driving in the middle of the road...

Laramie, Wyoming houses the University of Wyoming. I attemped to walk/jog up the steps one morning. That did not last long. I love the "7220 Feet" reminders. on the field.

My mother and my stepfather. My mom was ordained to be an Episcopal priest. My stepfather was already the Dean of the Catherdral this picture was taken in. This day was many many years in the making!

It's official now!

A photo I stole from someone else showing all of the clergy that came to support her. It was a great event!

Darn, it's getting cloudy! We took a trip to a wild horse ranch and got to see...horses.

These are wild horses. They look much like domesticated horses, except for...well, they just look like normal horses.

Snowy Range - a mountain pass near Laramie. Notice my look of excitement about seeing snow. Later in the trip, I would be less enthusiatic about the frozen menace!

The group of people I rode up with! Fun crowd!

When dressing for this excursion, I chose poorly!

John Mellencamp concert in Denver...sure beats just hanging around in the hotel room all night!

When I arrived in Colorado Springs, I went to the "National Museum of World War II Aviation". This was a pretty cool place that included tons of old airplanes, most of which still actively flew (the museum was at the Colorado Springs airport). There was active restoration happening so I got to see planes in various states of decay.

The museum had a ton of neat exhibits, including an actual Norden Bombsight. This was a very important peice of technology that helped us win the war. So important in fact, that when the bomber might be crashing, the bombedeer was instructed to destroy the bombsight so the Nazi's wouldn't learn some of the secrets.

The museum included many cutaways and informative exhibits about how aviation worked in WWII. My favorite was a great exhibit of how a turbocharger worked by showing the actual turbocharger that a certain plane was built around.

THis B-25 bomber has landed on several aircraft carriers and was actually used in the movie "Pearl Harbor". Slightly racy nose art though...I have a feeling that if that lady stood up, she'd be pretty funny lookin'

Ran into a group of my Physics All Stars (and Camille) as they were in town on a Colorado adventure!

Went hiking in the woods near Cheyenne Mountain. Deep inside the mountain houses some of the United States most important defense headquarters. It was a little weird to think that as I was hiking on the mountain, there must certainly be many atomic missles aimed at this very mountain, as it would be a very important thing to take out if attacking America. I worried for a moment, then realized that I was being silly and enjoyed the rest of the day!

A nice view from my hike. In the middle of the frame you can see the "Garden of the Gods", a very famous rock structure. If you go to the next picture, you can imagine that it's just an enlargement of this photo (my iPhone isn't that good, but dare to dream!)

"Garden of the Gods". The rocks are very impressive close up. It's one of those things that photos do a bad job of conveying the grandness of. Much like me.

I went up to Pikes Peak and stood in line to take a selflie in front of this sign #tourist. The drive up to Pikes Peak is pretty fun - especially when you are rocking #rentalpower and you aren't quite concerned with the engine or transmission!

Not a shabby view from 14000'.

I heard a dad tell his kid, "Isn't it neat to be standing on the highest point in North America". I thought about correcting him (he's off by more than a mile - in fact, Pikes Peak is only the 31st tallest in Colorado), but I kept my mouth shut!

Cool sign - gross snow. At this point, I still liked snow however.

Look at that stud in his sunglasses (which have now been completely scratched up somehow...grrr...). You'll notice the rail behind me. You can actually take a train up to the top of the mountain. Be sure to make reservations way ahead of time though! (and bring your wallet!)

Nice mountain-y view

A view from lower down the mountain reflecting across the Crystal Reservoir.

This is me, pointing at a mountain. If anyone wants a copy of this to print and frame, let me know!

Quick sidebar from the amazing sites - Tokyo Joe's is amazing. This is the "Traditional Okayo Bowl" which is great!

So this is part of my hike up Mount Yale. Mount Yale is 14,199' high - a 14'er. The hike starts at 10,000' and goes up quickly. It's certainly a tough hike, even in ideal conditions. In early June, there's still a TON of snow. This snow makes climbing a mountain with basic hiking boots a bit difficult. This was a fun ice-covered wooden bridge over a fast moving river.

Do you see a trail? There's a trail somewhere, but I sure don't see it - just another challenge with snow! Thank goodness for my GaiaGPS app that let me download a map of the hike before hand and then show where I was as I went (no cell phone service by the way)

This is where I stopped...a shade above 13000'. The path to the top was another 1000' feet of very steep snow covered ground (and when I say snow covered, I mean by several feet in most places). The picture doesn't capture the steepness or ridiculousness of the remainder of the hike. I will be back at some point...no mountain beats me and gets away with it!

Me trying to look cool while trying to breathe as I hike straight up through snow at 13000' feet. That view though!

The view was pretty incredible. At 13,000', you are close to the height of many of the surrounding mountains. There are no trees to get in the way and you get an unobstructed view that you can't get many other places.

While descending I had two thoughts, "Crap" and "How did I climb this in the first place". I included this picture to show the types of slopes I had to come down (mind you with no snow gear/shoes). Slipping or postholing at the wrong time could lead to some very serious encounters with a tree, rock, or gravity!

The mountain 2/3 to the right (the one with not a lot of snow, deceptive, I hiked up the other side) is Mount Yale. Many of the mountains in the area are named after Ivy League schools (Mounts Yale, Princeton, Harvard, etc...). They were going to name the best one Mount Clemson, but someone called it Everest first... This is near the town of Buena Vista which is Spanish for "Tall Mountains".

A neat sunset shot from my last day in Colorado Springs.