I went with 2 friends to the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness to climb two of the 54 Colorado 14'ers (mountain peaks over 14,000 feet elevation), Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak. It is a 5-mile hike into Willow Lake where we camped for the night.



Near the beginning.


The Colorado state flower was everywhere.


One of dozens of waterfalls as we gained the 2500 feet elevation to Willow Lake.

We arrived at the lake some 3 hours after leaving the parking lot, close to 7 PM. The lake is at one level of a cirque carved by a glacier. You can see one of the many stairsteps at the headwaters of the lake where the waterfall cascades some 200 feet down the cliff. We hiked on up to the top of the waterfall and camped there.



The entire mountain is made of this meta-conglomerate--fused matrix holding large chunks of rock in various colors. Most of these chunks are 2 to 4 inches across, but there were some that were 1 or 2 feet across.



It was getting close to sunset when we got to the top end of the lake.



We got camp set up, ate a sandwich and watched the sun set.



To be continued...