3 Days In the Grenadiers
With a brief window of decent weather between monsoon storms, last week I ventured back into the Weminuche Wilderness for a quick but strenuous solo 3-day backpack trip through the rugged Grenadier Range via a series of high passes and lots of off-trail rock hopping. Though most of my waking hours were spent hiking rather than photographing during this trip, I still caught a few moments worth sharing!
Mount Garfield (13,074 ft.) towers 4,000 vertical feet over the Animas River - August.
A moose and its calf wade in a beaver pond in the Grenadier Range.
Wildlife sightings were a highlight of this trip - I saw moose, deer, lots of marmots and pika, some sort of small weasel thing, ptarmigan, and even a black bear on my way out! No mountain goats this time, though, surprisingly.
Vestal Peak (13,664 ft.) and Arrow Peak (13,803 ft.) reflect in an alpine tarn at sunset. Wham Ridge is the unique curved quartzite "ramp" face of Vestal.
The west face of Mount Silex (13,628 ft.).
Dusk reflection of Mount Silex and Storm King Peak (13,752 ft.).
A well camouflaged ptarmigan.
Ripe wild raspberries in August.
It's wild raspberry season in the mountains! On one particular off-trail section of my route I stumbled upon an area of bushes stacked full of ripe raspberries, so I dropped my pack and spent a half hour gorging on them, handfuls at a time! 😋
