Red Cone Campout

Red Cone - what a challenge!!!
We have gotten a bit used to arriving at a trail and finding that it has been closed due to snow, but it is basically August! Could we really have it happen again?!?!? Yup. We headed out to the Red Cone Area, an off-roader's heaven, and right in the middle of it is an old mining site that quite literally scarred the wilderness but left some unique things in it place.
Red Cone Mountain is very appropriately named: the red and orange rust color left after the mining finished created a perfect cone shaped mountain for us to conquer!



















We first tried it from the Webster's Pass trail side, climbing up a a narrow path clinging to the side of the rock face. That's where we met the last remaining "bit" of snow on the trail: a snow drift only about 10 feet wide but about 25 feet deep blocked out path! We could SEE the other trail that joined our just beyond our reach!!!!
So what to do? Go back down and try it from the other side...the difficult side!
On the Red Cone trail we saw some amazing views as we climbed ever upward. We finally peaked at 12,801 feet and felt we had finished an amazing accomplishment. Well, then we realized what the true challenge really was. The peak we crawled down is so steep that they have made it a one-way path. Well, as I mentioned before, the a-joining path was blocked by snow, so we HAD to go back up the trail. All I can say is that it was a nail-biter. Kevin was calm only to later admit that he was quite nervous but knew that if he showed it, that I would freak out. It was about a 70 degree climb up loose and slippery rock, but whew, we made it!! On the left picture above, the peak we climbed is the red one just beyond the path! That's a truck way up there!)

































See that tiny dot along the edge? That's a RZR 4. I know its not us...but we did it next!




















The trail also offered some unique things: a cave that had been blasted out to access a fresh spring. The entrance was so coated in spongy moss that when pressed, it would squirt out droplets of water.




















Number "10" Hill
We found a fantastic trail that would connect us to a whole mountain of more trials, but only one this stood in our way: Number 10 Hill. It was, uh, pretty extreme. Huge boulders scattered down a stretch of hillside about 300 feet long switchbacking down to the valley. We stayed up and the top and chatted with several groups as they arrived and discussed whether or not to attempt it. We really could have made it with some careful wheel placement, but the challenge would be coming back up. The trail that lead back to our campsite was closed for construction, so the only option was 10 hill or back the way we came. We enjoyed the scenery going back! Once again, the photos don't show the drop offs and the elevation loss. This is a pretty steep hill and the rocks create about 12-24 inches drops.)

Camp-Life
Jadeyn once again found imaginative ways to entertain himself. There were a ton of tiny BBs scattered all over our campsite from who knows who. Jadeyn collected them all and stuffed the "Beetles" into all sorts of places, tree stumps, boulders, the lid of the propane tank, etc!






































Alpine Sunflowers and Little Pink Elephant Head Flowers

Flat Tops Wilderness Area - Coffee Pot Springs Road

The Flat Tops Wilderness area quickly became one of our favorite places this summer. With all the new places we have discovered, that is saying a lot!!! It was a wildflower lover's and an off-roader's heaven!! We have never been more muddy, or taken so many pictures in such as short time as this weekend. Due to the excessive photo taking on my part...this blog entry will be a little but heavy on the photo side. Here we go!!
First the wildflowers...
Our campsite was surrounded by an incredible rolling meadow complete with sheep! The windflowers boasted their colors spectacularly and kept my camera rolling! We couldn't believe the clusters of Columbines that were so big you wouldn't be able to fit the whole bundle in one vase if you tried.




















Forget-Me-Nots. These are one of my top three favorite flowers! and they grew by the bushel in this wilderness. Spectacular to look our over a field and see a cloud of baby blue and know it was made up of tiny, perfect individual flowers.







We took three trails in a day and a half and every trail was unique, beautiful and challenging! Our favorite spot was where the trail opened up into a wide expanse of slick rock with what looked like a small amount of water running over it. Well, that small trickle of water gathered together to plunge off the edge of the slickrock into a beautiful waterfall surrounded by wildflowers and a marmot to boot!


We made it to Windy Point, an overlook that gave a complete view of the beautiful area: rolling perfectly green hillsides, rocky plateaus, snow-capped peaks in the distance...breathtaking! We also bah-haw'ed a bit through the mud and the muck! There were a few places that we were pretty impressed that we made it through without having to break out the winch! As usual, the pictures just don't do justice to 3D, these mud tracks are about 8-10 inches deep! and the sound that the mud made when you sloshed through it was an awesome slurpy sound that seemed as if it belonged in a movie sound effect!

Ahhh...6 boys taking it easy! Jadeyn was in heaven playing with his 5 cousins.!!! We were joined by Jennifer (Kevin's sister) and her family on our second night. With that many boys, we knew we were going to get good and muddy. Taking turns in the RZR, they cheered Kevin on to go "ONE MORE TIME" through the biggest and deepest mud bogs. When were were through, we had 1/2 inch of mud coating the entire outside (and a lot of the inside!) of the RZR. It took a good three hours to power wash and scrub it off and be able to see the blue underneath again!

We piled everyone one in two trips up to Adam's Lake, a high mountain lake with slow still present on the far bank. We got to do a bit of fishing and tried to catch the school of cutthroat that kept swimming within out sight just off shore. We caught some beauties!!




















Some other "wildlife" we discovered were some tadpoles still in their eggs. Leave it to young boys to examine a pond close enough to discover these transparent balls floating near the shore! On another trail we caught a small frog for Jadeyn to chase and play with. He loved plopping it into the creek and catching it again!

Wildflower Wonderland!

To the Mountains!! Our favorite place to be...who knew this weekend would be heaven on earth with the magnificent wildflowers. Because of the late snows, the wildflowers were slower to emerge this year and we caught them at their peak and didn't even mean to.


We went camping near Nederland, CO and took the RZR all over the sweet back trails in that area. Its less than an hour from our house, but an area we had never explored before.
Each day we were met with at least two thunderstorms that darkened the sky and poured on us, but the only effect it had on us was making the trails nice and sloshy with mud and causing us to race for cover under the tent a few times!

We were stopped on this trail by a mini-glacier that just might be stubborn enough to remain the whole summer. It was pretty impressive to hike across the snow a ways and realize that the entire valley which should contain the trail is under a couple tons of snow for as far as the eye could see. But...on the bright side, we met some really nice people as we all converged on the same spot only to have to turn around! The second picture here is a "decent sized water crossing" according to the guide book. Uh, the picture in the book would have been a piece of cake! With the runoff this year, it was a raging river!!

On this trail that turned everyone else back due to a mighty snow drift, we made it over the first one spinning our wheels a bit only to find a massive one just a few hundred feet further. The risk with this one was if we slid, it would send us straight against a rock face...so...we stopped and had lunch!! Crossing the first drift again was a bit more interesting. Hit the gas and gun our way back up the slippery slope!








Nothing more exhilarating that seeing this as the enterance to a trail: Deeply rutted trail with high embankments, aspens on both sides scattered with wildflower and only wide enough for us!!!

4th of July Celebration

We continued the Cottrell Tradition of celebrating our country by blowing up tiny bits of it at a time! We headed to Wyoming where all the family members made it except for Stephanie, Mike and Family, and Danielle's husband. Pretty good for an impromptu reunion.




















Last year I thought we went a little over the top with fireworks, uh, this year, they doubled it!!!!Between us all it was a ton of fireworks!!!! But it was a great show! We went up in the hills behind Kevin's house to the natural corrals so we had a beautiful rock backdrop for the show to take place. Shawn even built a 8x8 foot platform as our staging area, complete with adjustable legs!




















It was the perfect place to let the kids run and climb around and then settle in for the show! Spectacular. We did have a visitor: a helicopter did a fly over with a spot light on us twice, but I guess he figured we weren't a threat because he didn't come back. It gave us all a bit of a fright though!


We visited Kevin's Uncle Wayne's ranch and spent the afternoon petting his goats, sheep, chickens, dogs and seeing what his latest projects were. This man is pretty amazing: he builds massive BBQs large enough to roast a whole pig, creates amazing leather saddles, cures and smokes his own meat, and who know what else, all while working full time!!
















Wayne also showed us his sweet gun collection and I even got to shoot his M-15 which I quickly fell in love with!!! (yes, I know that in the picture I am holding it wrong, but it was kinda hard to concentrate while balancing on one foot!).


We also got to spend some time with Grandma Pete which is always a special time.