The Goodrums

On Tuesday, my dad and I became the first (we think) Brashares to hike a 14er. Of course, we summited Pikes Peak as kids (family vacation) but we took the cog railway there so I don't know that it really counts. :)

Grays Peak is the 9th tallest mountain in Colorado at 14,270 ft. The hike to Grays Peak is about 6 miles round trip and has a 3,000 ft. elevation gain to the top.

We started out from the house super early in the morning. It's about a two hour drive to the trail head - mostly due to the last three miles (which took 30-45 minutes to cover). At times it seemed that the road was in worse condition than the trail. Thank goodness for an off-road vehicle. We arrived at the trail head about 6am and started hiking shortly thereafter. It was a beautiful and peaceful morning and we were able to enjoy fields of wild flowers and lots of beautiful views.

We made the summit of Grays Peak mid-morning. Before long the summit got very crowded, so we didn't linger too long. We hiked the saddle-area toward Torreys Peak and then headed back to the car.

I love hiking with my dad. He is a very experienced hiker and having someone with that kind of hiking knowledge around just makes you rest easy. Plus, he is the best pace-setter in the world. We weren't going to win a race up Grays Peak - but I made it (without any real conditioning beforehand) with my knees intact (which is saying something given my terrible knees) and I wasn't the slightest bit sore the next day. I was amazed - that's not exactly your easiest hike! In addition to all that, my dad is great company and it was so fun to get to spend some one-on-one time with him. That's something that is a rare commodity now. I loved every minute of it!















Starting from the parking lot









Views of Grays and Torreys
Grays Peak is in the center of the picture. You can catch a glimpse of Torreys in the right hand corner peaking out from behind Kelso Mountain (the green hill - looks like a hill in this picture anyway).















At the trail junction between the trails to Grays and Torreys
Looking back over the hike so far. The mountain pictured in the foreground (upper right corner) is Kelso Mountain.















The basin between Grays and Torreys















Dad and me at the summit















View to the southwest from the summit
If you look closely in the center of the picture (over the first ridgeline), you can see all the slopes at Breckenridge.















Looking back at the parking lot from the summit
The parking lot is back where the evergreens are (and this picture is zoomed in).















A mountain goat
There was a certain song from Sound of Music being hummed for a good while after this encounter.





























Wildflowers



















Signing out



















Bridge to the parking lot