A Chilly October Night in the Sangre de Cristos
In the middle of a chilly October night in 2025, my two friends and I suited up at the Cottonwood Creek trailhead and started a trek into the Sangre de Cristo mountains of Colorado. It was a little below freezing as we got moving at 1:30 a.m., and the moon illuminated the snowy mountaintops above us. This expedition, focused on measuring Colorado’s vast mountain ranges, began under the stark beauty of a moonlit, frozen landscape.
The early morning hours of October 2025 provided a unique challenge and perspective for this scientific endeavor. The precise time of 1:30 a.m. marked the beginning of our ascent from the Cottonwood Creek trailhead.
Based on reporting from phys.org. Read full report.




