Day 5 - Bighorn Trail

For Day 5 of our vacation, we went hiking on Bighorn Trail near Vail.

In the description of the trail, it said not to be discouraged by the steep climb for the first half mile.  As you can see it was steep!

 

The trail goes through a huge grove of aspen.  It would be magical to walk the the golden aspen in the fall.

 

This was a Mariposa Lily that we found to be beautiful with it's delicate purple and yellow center.  We had not seen this flower often on the trails.

 

For a time our trail was blanketed with fern.

A slow shutter speed photo of a stream along the Bighorn Trail.

We walked in and out forests, streams along the path and then the trail would open up to expansive vistas as we climbed. This photo shows some rocky outcroppings.

Back into the woods with the path lined with Cow Parsnip (white) and Monkshood (purple).

Bighorn Falls in the distance.  The trail did not go very close to these falls.

The great traverse of the Gore Range from a distance.

After about 2.8 miles uphill, I took a break and Steve went on up a ways and took a closer view of the great traverse.

The skies threatened rain the entire morning of the hike, but we got back down before the rain.  We found this hike to be very diverse in nature and enjoyed it a lot.