Memorial Day Weekend

On Saturday Ellie came to visit. While Dianne made lunch I watch Ellie color the sidewalk. She selected two shades of blue, both of which also colored her pants. It doesn't show in the picture, but she also has blue on her forehead.

After lunch we went to the Littleton little farm.


The little farm has a working blacksmith shop and a couple of houses. There is also a boathouse. I love the ingenuity of the boat maker. The side appear to be the tin from 5 gal. cans leaded together. I don't know what the engine came off of. If it were my craft I think I would stay within swimming distance of the shore.

After the farm we went to a playground.

This horse was Ellie's favorite activity.

Ellie went home Sunday. On Monday we packed the dogs and lunch and drove up Mount Evans.

The snow pack north of the Gunnison River is between 148% and 170% of the 20 year average. Because of this Mount Evans and Trail Ridge road could not be opened by the traditional target of Memorial day. The road is open only to Summit Lake.

After I took this picture I needed to get out of the car again. A blast of wind almost ripped the door out of my hand.

The last picture was Summit Lake. This picture is close to the lake. If you look at the mountain in the distance you can see part of the climb that is still closed because of snow.

This cut in the snow is on the opened part of the road.

We stopped to eat lunch at a saddle where the road transitions from the north side of the ridge to the south side. I hand held a point-and-shoot camera and overlapped the pictures. I started and ended facing North West.

Click on the picture to expand it.
Back below the tree line, the wind whips down the mountains bending the trees toward the valley.

Besides being a good picture of Star, notice the tree struggling to grow in a small pocket of dirt.