Last weekend my friends asked if I might like to go for a hike, so I said yes. I couldn’t really think of any place in particular, so they suggested this city park. I thought it would probably be full of people, but I had said yes, so this was where we went. That there was no parking available should have been the tip off that this wasn’t the greatest idea, I dislike crowds.

This is a great shot of “the Gateway” (really, that’s its name). I stepped to one side so that the vast horde that was there was not visible, but trust me there were scads of people milling about.

And there’s the Peak, with a few visitors that I could not crop out. It was a beautiful sunny weekend and was pretty warm, about 80 degrees F.

As it was about 5 pm when we finished our walk (3 1/2 miles by her Fitbit) and there were lovely shadows on the ridge to the north. We are outside of the park, because that’s where our cars were. But, it was a nice finish to the day (and we had certainly walked further than I had planned on).

This weekend was a completely different story. It was cold (about 50 degrees F) and the day was rainy. It was quite easy to find a place to park, I had my choice of spaces on a close in lot. And I always have an umbrella in the car, so I decided to take a stroll.

Here’s the Gateway again. The rocks look a lot redder when wet.

And the Peak seems to be missing! (Not to worry, it’s back again today, covered in fresh snow).

All and all it was a great day to be strolling about, there were no crowds to contend with, and I got some pictures that are different than the jillions of photos I already have. 😉