This is the Top of the World

Here is a photo of the top of the Rocky Mountains.  A wonderful friend, Dale Hannegrefs,

This is Lance on the left and Dale on the right. 

took us in his four-wheel drive pickup for an all-day trip along Engineer Pass, American Basin and Cinnamon Pass.  We started in Lake City, Colorado and followed the alpine Loop.  It was nothing short of breathtaking!

There are 52 peaks in Colorado that are approximately 14,500 ft high!  We were there, looking out across the expanse, and looking these peaks right in the eyes!

This is the steepest hillside!  I think this kind of road is called a shelf road.  One side goes straight up the mountain and one side goes straight down, and down and down into the valley 1500 or 2000 ft below!  It was scary, no, terrifying to ride on the downhill side of the truck. I loved to look down and squeal with fear!   Sometimes while looking out the window, I could not see the road  beneath the truck!  Or the bottom of the canyon, for that matter!  It was very thrilling!   Dale is an old hand at these roads and a very cool driver! The stick you see is a marker used to tell where the road is when it is covered with 25' of snow.

Even though this was June 25th, there was a surprising amount of snow.  The weather was glorious and warm enough for T-shirts. It is a very thrill to look at these peaks in the distance and to realize that we are the same altitude as they.  Mankind is insignificant indeed!