Another Weekend, Another Hike

 

We went to Mount Evans on Saturday for another "hike."  I put that in quotations, because you can drive almost all the way to the top and then get out to climb up the rocks the last couple of hundred feet to reach the summit.  At any rate, it was the boys' first 14er and they had a great time.  It also gave us the chance to get out of Denver and its record high of 104 degrees - the boys and I had to wear our jackets at the top because it was quite cool (we beat the heat today by going to the pool).

 Before we made it to the top, we stopped at Summit Lake and had a picnic.

 We then followed the short trail to see the other side of the summit.

 

On our way back to the car, we encountered a large herd of mountain goats/sheep.  We had seen them way at the top of the mountain while we were eating, but about 20 of them came down to the lake before we left.

 By favorite was the little baby.

 Luke wanted to climb all of the rocks at the summit - on the other side of the rock behind him is a steep cliff down the lake several hundred feet below - Luke was disappointed that he wasn't allowed free reign to explore the top.

 Ryan was a little more cautious, but he was still very curious, as well.

 And of course, one more goat on our way out.

Both boys were fast asleep within 10 minutes.