Colorado

My dear reader, thank you for your patience; things here at Chronicles have been very busy for the past week and I can only apologise that my blogging has fallen by the wayside. I will tell you all about it when I can but for now, here is my last post about my trip to the US.

The whole reason for going was actually for work, so I spent three weeks hanging out in Boulder, CO, with some super-cool weather fans at this place. Can you see it perched on the hill there? Beautiful place to learn about meteorology.

As it was an organised course thing with about 30 people on it, there were trips at the two weekends. The first one involved a shortish hike in the Rocky Mountains National Park, which was also incredibly beautiful.

The view from the top, at a little less than 12,000ft (3,600m). It was chilly enough for lying snow to remain (even though it was June!) and high enough that I had to catch my breath once or twice.

The walk started in essentially scrubland and descended about 1000ft...

...into forest, where we caught the odd glimpse of the mountain tops.

Despite the descent, we still encountered some sizeable snowdrifts, as it was sheltered from wind and a little shaded from sun. There were a couple where I was walking through snow well above my knees - and the one time I fell into one I was in it up to my hips!

This is the bottom of the walk, taken looking back up - still a few snow patches near the path but it was noticeably warmer at 10,700ft when we arrived at lunchtime.

The second weekend, we did a much less strenuous walk over fields and in the woods. We got some lovely views back over Boulder and the Great Plains, and of the Front Range.