Colorado is gorgeous. We camped last night in our tent in San Isabel National Park, where my dad is the campground host. The campground is at about 8800 ft high, and has an amazing view of the lake and the mountains. The temperature is in the 70s during the day, but in the 40s at night.

Today Jon and I wandered around the lake and the woods, and took tons of pictures. The forests are full of firs and aspens, and not surprisingly, the Rocky Mountains are very rocky. We wanted to go hiking, so we took off on one of the trails in the forest towards an abandoned mine. The trail was only 1.25 miles long, but it took us an hour and a half to hike up it. It was steep (we went up 1200 feet), rocky, and the air was very thin. But taking breaks allowed us to enjoy the wonderful views. I was surprised at all of the wildflowers in the meadows.

At the end of the trail was indeed an old mine. It was awesome. The shaft has been filled in with rocks and debris, but the wooden structure over the front is still there, somewhat. Its falling down and very weathered. We climbed around it anyway, and even sat inside it to eat a snack. The name of it was the Marion Mine. I tried to research it on Google, but info is spotty. I think its from the 1880s, and was for copper, lead, gold, and silver.

This is our first time camping together, and we had to test out all of our gear. Jon hooked up our little backpacking stove and lit it. A ball of flame engulfed the stove, and his hands. Luckily he got the stove turned off, and only lost some hair from his knuckles.