Late afternoon Mt. Elden Lookout

We started the hike at 3:30pm in warm weather, but within half an hour we were in the shade.  The sun was soon to dip down on the other side of the mountain as we hiked up the east side, so the temperature was pleasant on this mid-summer day.  It took us three hours to get to the top and two hours to hike back down.  It was the day after a full moon, but the moon didn’t rise until we were almost back to our car.  We used our headlamps for the last 45 minutes of the hike.  My favorite part of the hike is the half mile or so below the summit, with a thick area of aspens and a lot of flora you don’t see at the lower elevations of the hike.