On June 6th, we suddenly decided we had been away from Aurora too long and could not wait to get back. We jumped in the RV and this time we took our side-by-side and decided we were going where we had not been before. Every time we went to Aurora my eye would be drawn to a tall mountain high above and south of the old ghost town. When Jim asked me where I wanted to go, I pointed to that mountain and I said, "There! and I want to climb up to it." We ascended to about 8,000 ft in the side-by-side and ate a quick lunch, I slung my backpack over my shoulders and took off up the side of Table Top Mountain to ascend the final 1,100' to the top. It was a very vertical climb that I would estimate to be 12-14%. At times my feet were slipping backwards and it was difficult to keep my footing. I found some very exotic and wonderful flora above 8,500' and I had to come back and photograph it. Unfortunately I also found some very large feline droppings that caused me to not linger too long. Some of these flowers I do not have the name for so if there is anything unlabeled and you know what it is, I would appreciate an email.
