Working on climbing the 4000ft prominence mountains in the lower 48, these were the last ones I had in Colorado, except for one. Culebra is the highest privately mountain in the world and I couldn’t get permits so I’ll have to come back for that another year. I started on the difficult Mt. Wilson with friend Manoj Vora, who’d I’d met in Russia in 2007. We’d talked about getting together over the years, glad it finally worked out. The P4ks I got to were:

Mt Wilson (14246’)

Uncompahgre (14309′)

Crestone (14294’)

Flat Top (12354’)

I also got to two bonus peaks, classic scrambles I’ve had on my mind for a while, Longs Peak (14255′) and Maroon (14156′). Some say that the Maroon Bells are the most beautiful in the world. My pictures don’t do them justice.

On the way out of Colorado, I spent a few days in Dinosaur National Monument, a place that had been out of the way on previous trips. This place really blew me away. Petroglyphs, river views, and deep canyons with sandstone formations. The rivers were the only thing that stopped me from believing that I wasn’t in southern Utah. I tagged a few easy peaks in the park and swam at the confluence of the Yampa and Green Rivers, something I wouldn’t mind doing again…