I made a serious scouting trip into the area of Northern Colorado I refer to as “Mooseville” earlier this week.

June is not a productive month in the high country as most of the forest roads have yet to open and there is still snow on the ground above 9,500 feet altitude. Every year is a little different and I would estimate that it’s a little bit ahead of schedule with the thawing out up high. Most of the lakes I saw were completely thawed with only a couple still showing a little ice in areas. It has also been a wet spring so everything is turning green and looking healthy.

Today’s photo is of the Nokhu Crag peaks at the northern tip of the Never Summer Mountains as viewed from  Highway 14 west of Cameron Pass. This area is State Forest State Park and is the heart of “Mooseville.” In a few weeks I’ll begin working that valley and other areas.

It was an interesting run to Mooseville this past weekend though. The weather in Red Feather Lakes has been consistently rainy and cooler temperatures. As soon as I moved west over the Laramie Mountains along highway 14, the weather cleared up to mostly sunny, and that pattern has been holding on for several weeks. Even as I write this, Red Feathers is still experiencing torrential downpours, so I bugged out early and made my way back to Littleton. Can’t do much work if the roads are not open and it’s raining all the time.

Hopefully, my next visit into Mooseville will be in my brand new Toyota Tacoma pickup truck. I’ll know later then week, when the wife returns from Indiana driving it. Her son is the General Sales Manager at a Toyota dealer in Indianapolis and he’s getting us a great deal. I’ll make a photo of it when I get it out into the mountains. It’s always fun having a new toy(ota) to play with.

So, I’ll be here in Denver the rest of the week, sifting through some new photos, waiting for my new truck to arrive and letting my dogs keep my toes warm while I type.

Summer is almost here and I can’t wait to get going full tilt boogie.