Way Up High for Pikas

Day two of my trip to Colorado and Wyoming found me driving up into the rockies at 5:30 a.m. with my best buddy Dan Burke. My goal was to photograph Pika way up in the rockies and I wanted to be there at first light. When we reached the top of the pass at 11,991 feet the sun was just cresting the peaks to the east. We parked and when I stepped out of the car and it was pretty brisk I immediately went to the trunk of the car and grabbed a well needed warm sweatshirt for the trail. We slowly plodded up the trail looking for Pika . Wow, is it hard to walk at that elevation for a lowlander. I began having an anxiety attack and I had to stand for a good length of time to calm myself down. It takes awhile at acclimate to that elevation. After awhile I began to feel better and we started hiking up even higher. At 13,200 feet we began to hear Pika before we could see them. Soon I spotted several in the lichen covered rocks and we searched for a good spot to sit. One of the easiest ways to photograph Pika is to find out where they are and then just find a likely spot to sit and wait. The spot ended up being perfect. After about a half hour wait the Pikas started getting bolder and began coming down out of the scree (bunch of loose rocks) to feed. I was surprised to see that the Pika weren't gathering any plants at all. They were just eating and then running back up the scree to rest. Eventually I had one feed to less than three feet from me. It was so close that I couldn't focus on it. Not long after that all activity semed to come to a stop. It was good timing as it was getting too bright to photograph. On the way down I photographed a Mountain Bluebird and we spotted several Marmots one of which I photographed from a distance. We stopped in Idaho Springs for a well deserved lunch. We had awesome BBQ at Smokin Yard's BBQ. What a great way to finish off a morning. Thank you Lord for providing me this experience. God's love and blessings to all, chris