We left on Wednesday afternoon and drove straight to Colorado arriving in Golden around 8:30 pm. We checked into a pet friendly hotel for the night, ate some dinner, and went to sleep in anticipation of an early morning on Thursday with the plan to hike Grays Peak.
We woke up on Thursday, ate breakfast, and made our way to the trail head. One thing to note is that not many people will hike a 14,000 ft mountain on their first full day above sea level. For us, it was really the only day we could tackle the thing.
We drove to the trail head which included the forever long bumpy ride to get there once we exited 70. That was one of my least favorite drives to get to the start of the trail. We took a quick bathroom break at the trail head and we were on our way to tackle all 14,278 feet of mountain.
Heading out with nothing but blue skies and the day ahead.
There was one small moment at the start where Ken admitted what a horrible idea it was to be hiking this on our first day in Colorado. I really kind of agreed with him and told him if we were turning around, we were doing it now, not near the top. Alas, we continued on our way up the mountain.
It is hard to believe we would eventually end up at the top of the thing!
Kya was took excited for pictures. Seeing the people on the trail behind Ken really shows just how massive the mountains really are!
Although we had blue skies, it was cold and windy. It was so windy that a strong wind moved Kya's body completely sideways at one point. The wind was horrible. We had originally planned on hiking both Grays and Torreys Peak, but the windy conditions made us rethink hiking up Torreys.
Family selfie out on the trail. It was cold. I even wore Ken's jacket at one point. So, cold!
Ken and Kya hiking up one of the steepest parts of the trail
These two were the cutest hikers out there!
I was four layers at this point, it was so cold!
We finally reached a point where we had switchbacks instead of the trail going straight up. We are both big fans of the switchbacks! We are both kind of used to false summits and feared we might be heading up one, but sure enough we were at the real thing!
Us at the summit of Grays Peak! We were so happy to have made it to the summit. It was so cold and windy at the top too!
This girl. At 11 years old she made it to the top of her second 14er. She impresses me every single day. She is such an amazing girl and we are so happy that she is ours.
Family selfie at the summit
There is so much love and pride in this picture. I am so glad I got to do one of my favorite things with these two.
After pictures and a snack, it was time to start heading back down. I would rather hike up the mountain a thousand times than have to hike down. The hike down always hurts.
My crew taking a load off on the way down.
Two happy girls on the way down. Do not let Kya's face fool you, she was having a blast, despite the hike down.
There is no way to discuss the hike down without flat out saying that it hurts. It hurts bad. The knees start to ache, the attitudes start to dwindle. We are just not fans of the hike down.
The view looking back at the summit on the way down. We had a few shadows on the hike up and did not get to see all the colors like we did on the way down.
Colorful Colorado with Grays Peak in the background
These two celebrating once we got back to the car. Kya has pure happiness on that little husky face of hers. She loves hiking with her parents.
We made the dreaded drive back down the horrible bumpy road and drove on to Frisco which would be our home for the next few nights. We dropped Kya off and went off for a late lunch/early dinner with a glass of wine. We walked around Frisco a bit and called it an early night. We were so exhausted! Checking off hiking a 14er on the first day of vacation is quite impressive for three flatlanders from Kansas!
We both felt so grateful to get to hike another 14er with our girl and looked forward to the remainder of our time in Colorado with her. Kya is truly an amazing husky and definitely one of a kind.
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