Dinosaur, CO is a real place!

Over the last three weeks, maybe even longer, I've been doing things and going places that I wanted to write down and share about on my blog...  so this one is going to be a conglomerate of a couple of things from this summer.

In mid July, I had a girls trip to the Sangre de Cristos with my good friends and climbing partners Anna and Lisa to climb Culebra -- the privately owned 14er that costs a small fortune to climb.  This is the only Colorado 14er that has a permit system regulating when and how many people are allowed to climb (the permit costs $150 to climb the mountain -- storms or shine, and there's no refund.  When I climbed Kilimanjaro and Rainier, the permits cost less than that.  They are making bank on this mountain).  It's on a family cattle ranch and there's no regulation on the climbing itself -- there's no defined trail so as far as preserving the environment and "treading lightly," the system doesn't protect the tundra, it just caps the number of climbers at 20 or 25 per day.  The forecast wasn't terrible for that day, but we ended up starting in a low cloud and it never burned off or lifted.  So, the views were nonexistent and it was our one shot.  A peak-bagger would have been content to cross it off the list, but I do repeat climbs all the time, so it's not about just crossing if off my list.  The mountains are my lifestyle and it was a bummer I couldn't enjoy it like the rest of the mountains I climb.  That's only happened one other time on Kit Carson, and I finally got to climb that one again this summer too and it was a beautiful and clear day!  Regardless, we made the most out of the trip and had too much fun.

The gate that's supposed to be unlocked to keep you off the ranch...

We had several hours to kill at the trailhead before we went to bed.  So why not role play?

Not only were the views hidden, but it got pretty cold up on the ridge in the fog

Lisa paints the views on the tops of 14ers.  She said she was painting me this time since there weren't views, and I'd say it's pretty accurate!

Our summit shot!

After the climb we all visited the sand dunes for the first time.  It was a ton of fun!

Another big event from my summer was taking my sister and Charlie on their first 14er!  The majority of my family lives in Iowa and the Chicago area, so I love sharing my mountain pictures for them.  Leah has wanted to come out and hike with me for a little while, so at the end of her week vacation out here, I picked a relatively short  14er for them -- Quandary.  Mileage-wise it's quicker at just a hair over 3 miles up, but it has a few steep places and can be tough.  The weather was great and we had no impending storms to rush us, we steadily made it up, and it was a successful climb!

View the video on youtube here

The next day Jon and I took off for a week of camping and climbing to do Kit Carson and Challenger, visit his Uncle Rich in GJ for a day at the lake, Kings Peak in Utah, and we ended up at the OR conference in Salt Lake.  To keep it short(er), I'll just tell the stories with photos and captions...

Hiking up to Willow Lake for KC.  It was unfortunately down pouring.  The glamorous side to my hiking adventures.

This is right after Jon turns around and says, "Do you want my raincoat?" ... Death stare... "What raincoat?" I ask.  Why, only the one I've had in my pack the entire time it's been raining, Jon says.

Once we got to camp, we built a fire for dinner and clothes drying.

The next morning's sunrise from Challenger

From Kit Carson's summit at 7:00 am, looking over at my favorite mountains, the Crestone Peak and Needle.

Two years ago, Jon said he loved to "surf on his uncle's lake."  I didn't know that this was even possible, and didn't understand how surfing could happen on a lake and not the ocean.  I more or less water skied because I wasn't skilled enough to stay in the wake without the rope.  But hey, hooray for more first experiences!

On the way to Utah, we stopped in Dinosaur, Colorado!  The street names are named after dinosaurs.  Life.  Made.

I couldn't justify splurging on a giant stuffed Pterodactyl... so I settled for a travel sized plastic Pteranodon.  

Meet Ptaylor the Pteranodon.  He's named after his favorite singer.  Stay tuned for the new adventures of Tara Dactyl and Ptaylor the Pteranodon.

Summit of Kings Peak, the tallest in Utah at 13,528ft

Summit of Kings Peak, the tallest in Utah at 13,528ft

Sunset on the Salt Lake, Antelope Island

Sunset on the Salt Lake, Antelope Island

Wrapping up the week at Outdoor Retailer, visiting with Kelty, Zeal, Epic, Enerplex, and a million others!

So this one time, I got to go camping with Kelty and we took some lifestyle camping photos.  It was nuts to see myself all over the booth!

Alright.  Wrapping it up.  I shared a few too many photos from the last month, so thanks for making it all the way through.  School starts in two weeks, but I still have plenty of time for more summer adventures!  Stay tuned, get outside, and have a wonderful week.