Mile 710ish- Pagosa Springs, COLORADO

I can only assume this means the CDT is
inherently hazardous to public use.

Estero making it across our "log bridge"

Softwalker and I hung out in this conveniently
placed shelter during a rain/hail/thunder storm.

Woo-e, it's been a crazy week.  As you can see from this post's title, I have officially made it to Colorado, a new state along the divide.  That also means I've left the desert behind for higher ground-literally.  The group I've been hiking with and I left Ghost Ranch to begin our semi-immediate ascent into the higher mountain range known as the San Juan mountains.  As we got higher, the weather became cooler, the water became more plentiful, oh, and we began the snowy/icy traverses with the wind battering us on a daily basis. The snow also makes the trail a bit harder to find, thank goodness for maps!  The past few days, since Cumbres Pass, we've been walking mostly above 11,000ft, so it's been stunning and tough on the body.  As of right now, I could go on and on, but I believe photos would do this beautiful scenery more justice than my attempts at describing them so here they are:

More water = more mud.

Home for the night.

Me, Estero, and Softwalker at a trail marker.
  The snow begins

We thought we were on trail getting into Colorado.
 Apparently, we were wrong.

Softwalker near Cumbres Pass.

North of Cumbres Pass, with weather coming in.

And it snowed on us a few times.

Which meant fresh tracks in the morning.

Self Portrait at about 11,900ft and 8:30am

Speed Bump crossing a slope- the new snow in the sun helped us not fall.

Also, I have been collecting species information through a group called ASC (Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation)  It's been really cool to try and sneak up on different species to get a photo to report back to the website I've been recording it on- inaturalist.org.  I believe it's also made me more aware of my surroundings- as a thru-hiker, we sometimes get tunnel vision.  On this trip alone, I've spotted herds of elk, snakes, birds aplenty, and ptarmigan, to name a few.