J and I awoke around our normal time, and GA (grandson A, age 8.5) was still sleeping in his sleeping bag on one of our REI "Thermarest" sleeping pads in the living room. We got out of bed and started our morning routine and GA kept sleeping. His mother says he would be able to sleep through World War III, and I think she's right. I had my normal breakfast and GA woke up. I worked up a blog entry then did some computer work. J baked some banana bread because GA really likes it.

I had lunch around 12:10 and helped J set up some hummingbird feeders. I left around 1:45 w/GA in the Jeep and J stayed in the RV to take a nap.

GA and I went to the Chicago Creek Picnic Area so GA could go gold panning. We went a bit further downstream than we did yesterday, and GA had fun. I forgot to mention yesterday, that there was a lot of iron pyrite (fools gold) flakes on top of the gravel/sand at the bottom of the stream. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any real gold today either even though GA took off his shoes and socks to wade into the cold creek to get to some gravel that looked promising.

We returned to the RV around 3:30 and GA changed out of his wet clothes. We got ready to go up to Mt. Evans for a picnic dinner. We left around 4:20 in the Jeep.

We reached Summit Lake around 4:45, and stopped so GA could photograph the Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goats there. Four developmental Ford Focus cars pulled into the parking lot. Two had special test equipment attached to their front wheels, and all had some of their design elements obscured. When GA was done, we left and continued heading up the mountain.

We stopped about half way from Summit Lake to the summit to photograph some Mountain Goats, including one kid that was born this year. I didn't like the location, so I didn't get out my camera, but J discovered a way to get on the up-light side of them, and she and GA had fun photographing them for a while.

We reached the top of Mt. Evans (14,264 ft or 4348m) around 6:30. The wind was blowing like crazy so we had our picnic dinner in the Jeep. I had Clif Bars, J had cheese crackers, a slice of banana bread, and an apple, and GA had cheese crackers, a box of Cracker Jack, a Skor candy bar, and a slice of banana bread.

After we finished our picnic, we went out to photograph the Mountain Goats. Two of the kids were really playful, and I think it was mostly one of the kids bullying the other. They were really cute though, and I was able to get some nice portrait shots of them (below left and right).


One of the adults also posed really nicely on a rock — an image I've been trying to capture for quite a while because it shows their lofty environment (left).

We started heading back down the mountain and stopped to watch four Mule Deer just above tree line.

GA really enjoyed the trip up Mt. Evans.

We returned to the RV around 8:30 and I downloaded the images I took. Then I downselected them in iView and Capture One (C1).