Mountain of the Holy Cross, 1875 Oil on canvas (Autry National Center, Los Angeles, CA):
Mountain of the Holy Cross, 1890 watercolor (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC):
Mount of the Holy Cross, 1894 watercolor (Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO):
In 2013 I tried to hike-the-hike to see what Thomas Moran saw, but I started on the wrong (earlier) trailhead and wound up hiking the wrong, but still awesome/beautiful trail - Cross Creek #2006:
You can read about that day click-here-link-to-blog
This time I did my research and identified Notch Mountain Trail #2000:
73 total miles driving today to-and-from the trailhead.
It was a rude awakening to open the shades and see the Fit under snow:
It was a BEAUTIFUL drive up to the trailhead:
At the end of the parking area were three info kiosks, dealing with "Climbing Fourteeners", the "Holy Cross Wilderness", and "Camping in East Cross Creek" - they were very nice, but no relevance to me: I was neither "Climbing Fourteeners" nor "Camping in East Cross Creek", and the one dealing with the "Holy Cross Wilderness" was just generic "Occupancy and Use Regulations":
So I started up the trail at 12:30! Walking in the snow was a nice adventure, and I made good time (my first mile was 23 minutes, my second was 21:30), and the trail was beautiful:
Looking back down behind me:
After 2 miles, I got over a ridge and could see ahead of me:
with views across the valley:
I was now going down the back-side of a ridge, but didn't think too much of it until I started doing swithchbacks down through the forest. After going down about 1.75 miles from the ridge, I came across the first sign of the afternoon:
Because "East Cross Creek" did not seem familiar, I pulled out my map. Instead of going south down the black line, I had been going west on the light-gray dotted line (Half Moon Trail):
It was now apparent that I was not hiking "to view the Mount of the Holy Cross" = I was actually HIKING UP THE MOUNT OF THE HOLY CROSS! The Mount of the Holy Cross is one of Colorado's 14ers, with a summit at 14,005 feet - a little higher than the 4,000 footers I have done in New England! But it is a BEAUTIFUL DAY, and it is only 2:15, so let's keep going and see what happens.
The trail continued up through the forest::
until I broke out of the treeline a little after 3 PM:
(Not quite what the warm-weather picture on the internet looks like):
Across the valley, the views are magnificent! Looking west:
and looking north:
At 3:48 I reach the first BIG Cairn (12,005 feet), with the Mountain top WAY above me:
and maybe something big blowing in from the southwest:
I had had a full day, so I took some pics:
and headed back down the mountain.
Looking over at Notch Mountain. I should have been there, looking this way!
I hit East Cross Creek at 4:37:
and finally got back to the parking lot at 6:12
I found the correct trail down on the OTHER SIDE OF MY CAR:
Well, I will just have to come back AGAIN and do the REAL TRAIL next time!
In reviewing this blog, I never posted pictures of the Mount of the Holy Cross, so here are two - at 1:57 PM:
and at 4:52 PM
THAT WAS A GREAT WORKOUT!!:
The altitude made it feel like a 12-mile (or 14-mile) hike. I'm glad I went up as much of the mountain as I did, and I'm glad I turned around when I did.
Pizza and Thursday-Night-Football - what a great way to end a great day! Thank you God for these Fabulous Adventures!
Music today:
Morning drive up:
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma, 1969
This was a double-album, half live and half studio. The music is VERY SPACY, and seemed just perfect driving through the Colorado morning and the Colorado wilderness.
Evening drive back:
Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story, 1971
Rod Stewart - Never A Dull Moment, 1972
With the hike DONE, I just wanted to rock out, with great songs, great lyrics, and great beats! Get back to civilization.
Temperature-wise, it was sort of 32º F all day.
Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine (On Sept. 1, I joined Deede and Tad hiking Mt. Katahdin [Hunt Trail] - his final day on the AT!)
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/
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