Buena Vista, Colorado Barbara Whipple Trail and partial Midland Trail

hmmm...so many choices...because we are just got to a higher elevation and have not been hiking for two days, we decided to be lazy and do the Barbara Whipple Trail with a bit of the Midland Trail...a three mile loop roundtrip.

and yet another trail follows along the bank of the arkansas river, popular for rafting

mighty nice river up in Buena Vista; we heard one local say the river was running at 5,3000 earlier this spring and too dangerous to float.  Right now it is looking like an ideal trip; a lot milder.

Water is now only running at 1,200 cvs at 56F..brrrr

We know our daughter Jennifer would love this!

so back to the trail...at first it follows the river and then climbs up to offer great views of the town

okay, back to the trail

some rocks and flowers

even more rocks and flowers

flower without a rock

of course flower with a tree

and back to the trail and river...nice hike :)

An Impromptu Museum... Hikers pick artifacts from the gold mining days and leave them in this Kiosk. Lots of cool pottery, etc

 left the large iron wheel piece as my contribution

The Mosquito Mountains are unusual

Click on any picture to enlarge. Look closely at he caterpillars eating this plant

A model above Buena Vista

Zooming in on a newer section of town; they are building something like a town square here along the river bank --more upscale than the historic downtown

Old gold mine along the trail

a nice hike...