Snapshots from Eagle's Nest Colorado

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Early enough start to Booth Falls Trail that there were no other cars yet in parking lot, only the tips of the south-facing mountain range were lit. This meant that steep hike sidling up along cataract after cataract of rushing creek would be relatively dark, loud by water, quiet by foot traffic.  Vail is at 8,400

feet elevation and the destination elevation, if an option, is 3,000 feet higher.  The montane stages become sensitively apparent as you walk along the trail that meanders through various stages of heavy pine, craggy boulder, and many rockfalls along the north slope.  Side trails often cut through the pine forest for overlooks of the spring-fed creek as it twists and carves like an avalanche down

Booth.  Subalpine regions rise up the treeline where thick patches of snow still litter well shaded portions.  The creek and its roar become your companion; veer too far upslope and as you lose the noise, you find that your isolation is a bit more eery than before.  Long open climbs lead up to cliff outcroppings and if not under the tower of the pines, you can see what appears to be the tops of the range, quiet and still.  At the falls, the violence of the water shows itself – the water has no pattern, but merely battering off side by side promontory.  Over on the other side, the sun has begun to reveal

the more cheery quality of the south slope aspens and even open meadows.  I went ahead and continued to hike past the falls, some two hours in-mountain, and very quickly the elevation transition had allowed for more and more unmelted snow until the trail began to hug tightly to a steep and rocky north slope which became total snow.  Some footprints shown across the surface, but holes also appeared, especially at the base of pine trees, still a foot or so deep. It was at the tree line up into the alpine elevation the trail would no doubt lead through hardscrabble rock, following the creek, to Booth Lake some hour and half up at the top.