We awoke refreshed and ready to start the day. Denver is known as the mile high city and it’s elevation is indeed right at 5,280 feet. Where we are camping in Central City west of Denver is closer to 9,000 feet elevation. When you step out of the camper, your lungs can feel the difference right away. The simple things that you do (eating Twinkies, sitting in a hot tub, for example) take more energy than they do at sea level back home.
Where the hiking became more work and less fun.
Today we had a full day planned of hiking and going to the top of Mount Evans. The road to the top starts in Idaho Springs at 7,540 feet and climbs to almost the top of Mount Evans at a whopping 14,130 feet over the course of 28 miles! Colorado has its share of ‘Fourteeners” (mountains over 14,000 feet) but this one is the only one accessible by car. We traveled in the first 11 miles and stopped at the Echo Lake recreation area. We ate a quick picnic lunch but the kids were excited to get on the trail and find some rocks to climb and play on. The trail started out as a meandering wide level path around the south side of Echo Lake but once we got onto the Chicago Lakes Trail, it started to get much more rocky, steep and challenging. We had hoped to hike in to the Idaho Springs Reservoir and then return on the same path but only made it part way. Hopefully, I will get better at scheduling these high mountain areas toward the end of our trip when our lungs(and muscles) have become more acclimated. Victoria and Thomas found plenty of large boulders to climb along the edge of the trail, so that made the hike for them. We found a beautiful lookout spot (right from the trail mind you) but they had to go up a cliff another 50’ to get the full view. The kids are nothing if not adventurous.
Echo Lake
We made our way back down the trail and headed to the car to continue our trip up the mountain. As we begun the climb (in our car), we all noticed the effects of the altitude- popping ears and headaches. It effected Victoria the most but I could feel the effects of the altitude as well. Normally, our family would stop at most every vantage point and get out for a short hike or walk but we were intent on getting to the top before it got worse. We sped by the Mt. Goliath Rec area and the Summit Lake as we made the push up the final 5 miles of steep road to the summit. When we arrived, we all felt like just breathing was extremely difficult. We 
snapped a couple of quick pictures at the remains of the Crest House near the summit and decided to forgo the short hike to the very summit of Mt. Evans. The views were spectacular and I hope to come back again when our bodies are accustomed to the altitude. We knew we were high when we saw one of the rangers giving a mountain goat some bottled oxygen! As we made our way down, we all started to feel better. The area above the treeline (around 10,500 feet) , known as the Alpine Tundra had limited wildlife but we did see a group of mountain goats. We made our way back back down toward Echo Lake and stopped at the Echo Lake Lodge. I had heard good things about the homemade pies from a neighboring camper back in Central City. We helped ourselves to slices of homemade apple pie, peanut butter/chocolate pie and a brownie sundae. The pie was delicious and we figured we had earned it from all that hiking! The name Lodge was still attached, but they had actually stopped renting rooms in 1982 and were now a restaurant and gift shop only. We made our way back down the mountain and headed back to our campsite. A great first full day of adventure here in beautiful Colorado!
Summit Lake…elevation 12,830′