hiking we will go......

so we managed to make it up to the mountains yesterday for a hike! the weather held out and we had a great time. hope everyone enjoys the pictures! i love this first one...looks like an eye on the closest aspen...see it?







i was surprised it was still so GREEN up there. it's been getting pretty chilly here at night and we're almost 2ooo feet lower than in the canyon. the river was very low and the waterfalls are almost dried up....but that's normal for this time of year.

this one was taken at one of favorite places to camp...normally the river is rushing right below,where you see the bedrock. it's awesome to sit around the campfire and listen to the rushing river!

they used to mine silver in the canyon. that's why it's named la plata canyon ;)

here's an old mine shaft. they're everywhere up there. some are blocked off but then there are just as many that are still open like this one. these kinda freak me out and this is about as close as i ever get to looking inside them. if you've ever seen the movie "the descent" then you know why.

i thought these mushrooms were funny looking. we called them mountain balls.

the pretty river! you wouldn't believe how frickin cold it still is! so refreshing to wash up in the morning when you're camping. the water is crystal clear, even when it's raging and much higher. you can see the colors of the pebbles on the bottom even when it's 4 foot deep.

here's a great mountain shot. you can see the slide area from past winters. i was trying to find a bear. we've seen them up here plenty. once a bear came up to our tent not five minutes after we went in for the night. we had foolishly left our coolers out and he helped himself to all our food. i'm just glad he didn't eat us! after he left (about 45 minutes of sheer panic later) we ran to the car and didn't get back out until the morning. we always camp safe now. it was a huge wake up call!! there must be a lot more bears coming into the campsites lately because there are signs posted everywhere about them now.




even so....i'd never stop coming into the mountains!!! it's amazing up here...and so crazy how the land changes from desert(where we live) to mountains (about 45 minutes away).

hope everyone had an excellent weekend and labor day!

time to get back to work now.....

i feel so inspired and have some great ideas for some creations swirling around in my head.




have a grateful day!

:) :) :)