Roxborough Park

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May 152011
 

Yesterday I headed out on a wildflower quest to my favorite Denver-area park of all time, Roxborough State Park. It’s still just a wee bit early for a superb wildflower show, but the geology at Roxborough is enough of a treat in and of itself so I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed either way.

It was a cold and dreary day and I nearly changed my mind about going hiking, but I knew that I would regret not going, so off I went. I wasn’t QUITE dressed appropriately for the cold and was very glad to find a pair of gloves and my Buff® in the back of my car once I got to the park. I believe I would have been quite miserable without them.

Anyway… it was truly a lovely hike. The flowers weren’t great, but there were enough to make me happy. The cold kept the usual weekend crowds away and the geology, as always, was stunning. The best part was that I felt like I started to get back into the photography groove… FINALLY!

A few photos from the hike are below and the rest are in a SmugMug gallery HERE.

Deer Creek Canyon Park

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Apr 092011
 

Deer Creek Canyon Park is a Jefferson County Open Space park in the foothills southwest of Denver. I chose this location to avoid the sloppy conditions that generally exist on trails this time of year. It’s a pleasant hike with views of the hogbacks and red rocks to the east.

Red rock view

Red rock view

Hogback view

Hogback view

As this was only my second hike of the year so far, it felt really great to get out there and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of nature. A small portion of this hike passes through a Ponderosa pine forest. I just LOVE the smell of Ponderosa pine forests!

The first part of the trail (I took the loop counter-clockwise) meanders through grassy areas and scrub oak groves.

Remnants of autumn

Remnants of autumn

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there are actually a few wildflowers starting to bloom out there. I guess everything is going to start up early this year due to our exceptionally dry and not-all-that-cold winter.

Wild geraniums and oak leaves
Wild geraniums and oak leaves
Nuttall's Violet
Nuttall’s Violet
Sand Lilies

Sand Lilies

Wild geraniums

Wild geraniums

Lost Lake

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Feb 062011
 

I finally went on my first hike of the year last weekend – to Lost Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. I don’t usually like to hike on weekends due to the crowds, but my hiking companion and I got an early enough start to miss much of the hiker traffic and to get a decent parking spot at the usually very crowded trailhead. We brought our snowshoes but didn’t end up using them as the snow on the trail was nicely packed.

The scenery along the way was quite lovely.

The destination of this hike is Lost Lake, which isn’t actually very lost at all. It’s one of the most accessible of all destinations in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.

This is another one of those hikes that I’m going to have to do again in the summer.

To view additional photos from this hike, click HERE.

Wilderness in the City

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Dec 042010
 

My mom is starting to experience some moderate to severe blog post withdrawal symptoms, so I thought I better get something going here today.

I went on a walk/geocaching adventure yesterday with my geocaching teammate in the Sand Creek Regional Greenway: Wilderness in the City. While not overly scenic this time of the year, it was nonetheless a very pleasant outing.

We are experiencing unseasonably balmy weather at the moment, so not only was the ice on this pond NOT thin, it was entirely nonexistent.

I think this guy had his eye on the poodle:

The trail:

This particular stretch of the greenway gets up close and personal with an emissions testing center, an immigration detention center, and a local prison. How’s that for an urban wilderness experience?!!

We spotted these American Goldfinches hanging out in the teasels:

‘Twas a pleasant walk indeed.

Mayflower Gulch – Winter

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Nov 272010
 

What better place for a post-Thanksgiving snowshoe stroll than Mayflower Gulch!? This was the first time I’ve been hiking/snowshoeing while it was actually snowing. It was an awesome day.

Shortly after I left the trailhead, I glanced back and got my last peek at sunshine and blue sky for a while.

The trail follows a 4WD road through the spruce and fir forest. The 4.6-mile hike is not strenuous by any means, but the elevation (10,880 to 11,560), not to mention the scenery, is enough to render one breathless.

My destination was the group of old mine buildings from the Boston Mine near the head of the gulch.

By this time, the snow was really starting to come down and it was time to head back.

What a fabulous hike! I’m going to have to go back later in the winter when there’s even MORE snow. :)  I’ll have more photos posted to a gallery as soon as I get through them all.

Dakota Ridge

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Oct 302010
 

We had an unseasonably GORGEOUS day here in the Denver metro area yesterday, so a friend and I headed to the Morrison area to hike the Dakota Ridge. Dakota Ridge is one of the hogbacks along the east side of the Front Range where the formerly horizontal sediments washed down from the Ancestral Rockies were tilted up during the Laramide Orogeny starting about 72 million years ago.

The area that is now the Front Range once sat on the western edge of the Cretaceous Interior Seaway that covered what is now the central US starting about 100 million years ago until the beginning of the Laramide uplift. The ripple marks in the Dakota sandstone all along these hogbacks is evidence that the area was once under water.

Dakota Ridge is also known as Dinosaur Ridge due to the abundance of dinosaur tracks and fossils found in the area. My hiking companion spotted this T-Rex off in the distance. (It might help if you squint).

The scrub oak up on the ridge was just starting to change into its fall colors.

I didn’t get any really KILLER photos yesterday due to the time of day and angle of the sun and all that, but considering that one year ago yesterday my world looked like the photo below, I won’t complain.

As much as I love snow, I don’t mind waiting just a wee bit longer for that.

Butler Gulch

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Oct 152010
 

We’re barely into fall here but the high peaks of the Front Range are already under a blanket of snow and I’m already feeling a bit wistful about summer. :(

These images are from a hike I did to Butler Gulch on the first day of August, 2008. It remains one of the best wildflower hikes I’ve done to date. And have you ever seen a sky so blue?!!

The trail is actually an old road (now closed to motorized traffic, thank goodness) that eventually leads to an unsightly old mine or two.

Above treeline on a gorgeous summer day is one of my favorite places to be.

The Colorado columbines were especially prolific along this trail.

This “corduroy road” is how the miners got their wagons and other vehicles though the muddy spots.

Ah, summer… until next year. Meanwhile, I need to dust off the snowshoes that have been hanging on a nail in the garage since mid-March and start planning those winter hikes. The great thing about living in Colorado is that every season has its own special charm.

Kenosha Pass – Fall 2010 II

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Sep 202010
 

A few more from Saturday’s aspenfest at Kenosha Pass:

Pikes Peak

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Sep 112010
 

My mom and I drove up “America’s Mountain” – aka Pikes Peak – yesterday. We had intended to take the cog railway that winds its way to the top, but an unfortunate lack of reservations prevented us from doing so. So we decided to drive up instead. We were actually quite glad we drove instead of taking the train, as it allowed for a much more personal encounter with the mountain and didn’t involved great hordes of chattering people. Someday I’ll take the cog railway up, but it just wasn’t meant to be this time.  

"America's Mountain" from Crystal Reservoir

"America's Mountain" from Crystal Reservoir

At treeline, 12,000 ft.

At treeline, 12,000 ft.

The road up - not for the faint of heart!

The road up - not for the faint of heart!

The train we would have taken had we had the foresight to make reservations

The train we would have taken had we had the foresight to make reservations

The view from the top (14,110 ft.) toward the Lost Creek Wilderness

The view from the top (14,110 ft.) toward the Lost Creek Wilderness

Tincup Pass

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Sep 082010
 

While in the Buena Vista, CO area recently, my traveling companions and I went on a 4-wheel-drive Jeep adventure up and over Tincup Pass southwest of town. The road over Tincup Pass was used back in the day to ferry supplies and such between the mining towns of St. Elmo and Tincup. This was the maiden 4WD voyage for both the Jeep Liberty I was driving and for me as a driver, so it was quite an interesting trip and it definitely gave my driving skills a workout!

The road starts out just outside the town of St. Elmo, with absolutely no warning of the nature of the road ahead.

The vast majority of the vehicles on the road that day were of the 1- or 2-seater ATV variety. If you ever get a wild hair to drive up to Tincup Pass, I might recommend renting one of these vehicles in St. Elmo.

After a great deal of bumping and jostling through the forest, the road finally comes out of the trees and the pass comes into view. Up to this point, the road hasn’t been TOO too bad.

The closer we got to the pass, the rockier the road became. (The following photo is by Pam G. I’m sitting there in the driver’s seat wondering how on earth I’m going to maneuver through that mess)!

We finally made it to the summit of Tincup Pass, elevation 12,154, with beautiful views all around.

But it was c-c-cold and windy up there so we didn’t linger long before starting down the other side. The road on the other side was quite a bit worse than the road on the way up, so it was a great relief when we finally made it down to Mirror Lake, where the road improves considerably. The town of Tincup is just down the road and looks like a lot of fun to explore, but it was raining by the time we got there so we didn’t stop. Next time.

On the way back to Buena Vista, we were treated to gorgeous views of the west side of the Collegiate Peaks. Then it was up and over Cottonwood Pass back to the east side of the Continental Divide.

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