Maroon Bells

The favorite part of our trip was our jaunt to Maroon Bells.

These are two mountains North Maroon and South Maroon and nestled beneath them are Aspens and evergreens and gorgeous, gorgeous scenery.

This is one of the most photographed areas in North America. We couldn't stop taking photos, nor could we stop glowing in its presence.

We hiked about five miles total. My new hiking shoes stood the test of the terrain.

My legs took about two days to recover. It was a lot of rough boulders and rising elevations.

A mountain stream, now snow in mountains to the east.

A panoramic view.

We hiked to the beginning of the Aspens.

Just proof that we were there.

When we were in a store in Aspen the clerk was talking to us about what we had been doing that day and we told her we had been to Maroon Bells. She immediately said, "Did you see the mountain lion?"

Uh, no.

Well two previous customers had been hiking in Maroon Bells that morning and were being stalked by a mountain lion. They high tailed it out of their area.

Oh my goodness, ignorance is bliss. There are obviously several trails in that area. I'm just glad mine was mountain lion free, or so I thought.

I don't mind the hiking, but I prefer the wildlife stay hidden. How dare they think they own the terrain when I'm walking by?

I like nature, just not the animals that inhabit it.