We got to the trailhead around 10 and there were surprisingly only a handful of cars in the parking lot that's shared between Montgomery Pass and Zimmerman Lake. We got geared up and headed for Montgomery Pass.

We found lots of mushrooms along the way up to Montgomery Pass which was exciting. The wildflowers in the area were okay but not as great as the first year that we went over the Fourth of July weekend. I think we need to do this hike in late July which will increase our chances of seeing lots of wildflowers and bigger mushrooms.

We made it to Montgomery pass and saw a storm rolling in. After watching it for a few minutes we concluded that it was heading South and that it wouldn't hit the area we wanted to hike to, so we continued on to North Diamond Peak. When we were at the peak before our desired summit, a different storm started coming in that was a little more threatening with thunder, so we decided to turn around instead of making it to North Diamond Peak. On the descent before making into the treeline, it started raining lightly on us. Right before making it into the treeline we looked back to see that the storm just barely skirted the area, so it would have been fine to continue on. But that's okay, we spent more time on the way back searching for mushrooms and found a few other varieties that we missed on the way up.

We've been preparing ourselves to do a specific longer hike. We wanted to do it this weekend, but the weather outlook wasn't great so we decided to follow the wildflowers instead. Herman Gulch is a very popular trail right off I70 between Georgetown and Breckenridge. Because of the ease of access and the blooming wildflowers, this area was popular. Luckily we knew that and planned to get there early. After packing the car up the night before, We headed our a little after 6 and got to the trailhead around 7:30. This parking lot probably holds about 100 cars and there were only about a dozen left when we got there.

We have done this hike before in autumn to catch some fall colors. That hike was boring and brown with not a lot of fall colors, so we were hoping this time would be a little different - and it was. There were so many wildflower varieties, including a few we haven't seen yet this year, like Harebells (a late summer flower) and Purple Fringe. Among the new flowers to us this season, there were tons of Columbines, Paintbrush, Cinquefoils, Fleabane, Arnica, and so much more. This hike may have been boring in September, but it's a wonderful hike in Summer.

It was busy and the summit of this main trail at Herman Lake was crowded. We were expecting that. We decided to push ourselves and hike on to the bowl formed by The Citadel, the mountain to the West of Herman Lake. With only a handful of other people on that trail, and a trail that was so infrequently trafficked that it disappeared in several spots, this was the right choice. In this more quiet area, we found lots of wildlife, including Marmots and Pika. We had a snack in the bowl of the mountains and enjoyed our time resting there before heading back down.

We were short on time this weekend. Katie worked on Saturday and we had a family gathering in Nederland at 1 on Sunday. So we woke up early and hiked Caribou Hill just outside of Nederland before the gathering. We've hiked this 2 other times before, once in late fall and once in winter, and both times were mediocre. I wasn't very excited about this hike because of the previous experiences, but hiking it in a different season made a world of difference. There were lots and lots of wildflowers.