Looked out my window through the valley towards the Sangre de Cristo Range this morning and just saw an ordinary wall of purple, nothing to get excited about. Lucky for me the big dog is excited by every day no matter what the weather! Even as we passed the overlook on our way to the trailhead, the view towards the mountains was just ordinary.
So we took the lower trail today in an effort to try to give these old tired legs a rest! This trail has no views of the Sangre until the very end when there is a view on either side of one of the minor mountains in our area. By then things were looking up so I made a mental note to check the view from the trailhead upon our return.
By then the morning light had broken through the cloud layer on the east and the rugged
peaks of the Sangre de Cristo were perfectly lit with a warm morning glow that would take your breath away! Oh, and as an added bonus, we saw a small herd of mule deer that were well worth a few snaps 🙂 It took some patience though, the herd was originally standing in front of a very distracting backdrop and I had to wait for a while for the shy quiet critters to move on past it. I think it was worth the wait and this is my favorite one of the set 🙂