One of the many Columbines along the trail

Before this year, I had never seen a Columbine in the wild despite all the hiking I have done. It was a goal of mine this year to see some. Oddly enough, I have been seeing them everywhere! This was my 3rd hike in a row where I have seen lots of them. Mid to late June seems to be the best time of the year to spot the Colorado State flower.

Finally, after nearly 2 miles of hiking we got our first glimpse of the mountains. The clouds had parted up high allowing us to see the peak at 14,267 feet. It was very ominous to not see any of the mountain other peak way, way up in the sky. Masud couldn't believe we were headed up there!

Shelly acts as my tripod as I pose for this photo looking up at Torreys. I wasn't happy with the first take, so we had to hike back down and redo it.

From about 13,800 ft on the Grays Peak trail.

Looking at Torreys on the left and Kelso Mountain in the center right a bit lower. Stevens Gulch and the Grays Peak trail can be seen on the right.

Taken from the saddle between Grays and Torreys. The saddle is at 13,700 feet. We were amazed at how quickly we got down after working so hard to get up!

We also began to keep an eye on the clouds. There were some nasty clouds forming around us you can see partly to the right in the photo. They all seemed far enough away though to safely summit Torreys.

Taken just below the snow field at about 13,500 ft.

The clouds continued to threaten, but never did much. We did have some very light hail in this area on the way down.

Taken at a smool pool of water fed by snow melt at around 12,000 feet.