Colorado Trip: The Mt Massive Hike

One of the main things Jeremy and I were looking forward to on our trip was climbing Mt. Massive.  It is the 2nd tallest peak in Colorado at 14, 421 feet.  The hike is a 13 mile round trip.  My dad, Jeremy, and I started at 5:00AM on Labor Day and it took us a total of 9 hours to complete it.  (5 1/2 hours up, 1/2 hour at the top, and 3 hours down)

Since we left in the dark (we used headlamps) we were able to get to the tree line before sunrise.  It was an amazing site to see the sun rising over the mountains in the east!

One of my favorite parts of this hike was going through these fields of brush right after the tree line.  This is also the easier part of the hike. 

I just love this picture!  This was when the sun was coming up in the east and making all the brush look golden.

Nope, we're not at the top yet!  This was one of many "sitting rocks" we found along the way.  We're at the ridge at this point and we have about 45 minutes more of climbing.  The next 45 minutes are pretty scary since we had to hold onto rocks with sharp drop offs and a narrow path.  The views are amazing from here anyway though!

We made it!!  The top of Massive is literally a boulder field.  We're standing on the tallest part of the rocks! 

Looking off to the West.  AMAZING!!!

This is to show you how rocky it is at the top.  Basically the summit is one huge boulder field.

We had so much fun climbing and experience the beauty of God's creation!  We were exhausted by the end of the day (We meaning Jeremy and I because for my dad, this was nothing!) but we are now trying to figure out our next one to climb!  And in case you were wondering, no it won't be Everest!