Hello Topography! (for real this time)

As of Saturday the 15th I was officially done with my first quarter of graduate school. Felt very good to have all the papers and projects completed and a break until January 5th. Having applied to jobs but getting no response, I have decided it would be best to stay in MN until the next quarter starts. And I am pretty happy with that choice currently.

But that left me with a week in Colorado. And it was a pretty great week to enjoy! Not to flaunt, but the past couple days have been in the 70's. Today it is back to mid-30's--don't be so jealous Minnesotans.

Early Tuesday morning I traveled up to Fort Collins to visit Amanda who is in her last days in CO. We found internet and looked up nearby hikes. Greyrock was our choice and we departed in the late morning. Sunny and clear, it was looking to be a great day for a hike. We found the trailhead and began our hike at the Cache La Poudre River that looked like it could be in Northern MN. In fact, once on the trail it seemed like we were in the woods of MN.

We approached an overlook site on the meadow loop and were awarded with this beautiful scene that no photo can do justice for.


We were pretty stoked about this view and we weren't even to the 360 degree view. The next leg of the hike was pretty intense with a nice flat meadow to lull you but with the view of the upcoming summit.

Yes, we climbed that. It was a lot of scrambling over boulders as we neared the top, but finally we emerged onto the top for a pretty spectacular view of the plains and mountains.


Here I am at the very top with the plains behind me. At this point clouds were rolling in and covering the sun, so we didn't have a sunny summit. But the view was amazing and definitely worth the journey. I couldn't have asked for a better day to enjoy the Colorado topography in November!