Trail Ridge Road

Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous paved road in the United States.  This is a no guard rail, exhilarating ride through Rocky Mountain National Park with vistas for miles and peaks for days.  Once above treelike you can see all the way to Wyoming, it's just jaw-dropping beautiful.  Usually you creep along with sudden stops from tourists and the occasional animal crossing but on this late summer day we had the road to ourselves.  

As the fog rolled in our visibility was limited but then we would turn a curve and come face-to-face with snow-capped mountains with the soft glow of sunset.  The moon rose in the east and we headed west to Grand Lake.  Fortunately we were off the road before dark but not before we heard the bugle of elk through the misty, abandoned terrain.  Driving Trail Ridge Road is always exciting but made even more special when you find a lucky afternoon and it feels like you have the whole National Park to yourself.

Rocky Mountain Sunset

Friday evening we drove over Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake but as the clouds gave us a break we jumped out for a quick look around Rock Cut Trail.  We searched for a Ptarmigan but despite the Horned Larks and the distant bugle of a male Elk, we came up short.

Our closest wildlife encounter was with the Marmots that littered the sides of the trail.  After that it was just a thousand rocks that all looked like a Ptarmigan in the afternoon sun.

We eventually gave us birding and took in the beautiful vistas and completely empty trail at Rock Cut.  It was surreal being up above treelike on a busy trail with NO ONE in sight.  Even the cars going by on Trail Ridge were few and far between.

It was a glorious start to a relaxing mountainous weekend.  I am so grateful to live in such a beautiful world and have Rocky Mountain National Park in my backyard.

Happy Birthday Rocky Mtn National Park!

Lily Lake in RMNP

Rocky Mountain National Park is celebrating 100 years!  This weekend we will cross Trail Ridge Road and take in the sights as we head to Grand Lake for a little rest & relaxation.  I'm looking forward to seeing this beautiful park again.  Cheers RMNP to the next 100 years! 

Summer Road-trip: South Dakota

With a long weekend ahead we packed up the car and hit to the road north to South Dakota. We traveled the winding hills of green prairie for 5 hours and then we were at camp.  At first light we drove the 5 minutes up to Mount Rushmore.  Surprisingly, we enjoyed the Presidents and the sculptor did a wonderful job of using the natural rock design in creating this one of a kind memorial.

After that we hit the road to explore the Black Hills.  Our only life bird of the trip came next after breakfast where we were given 2 beautiful Red Crossbills.  Then we kept on driving the scenic highways that flow in and out of Custer State Park.

Little Baba Ghanoush had her first experience swimming - the water was frightfully cold but she did well.

The Needles Highways proved to be everything it was hyped up to be.  We went through single lane tunnels, switchbacked by beautiful pinnacles, and enjoyed the scenery.

Some of the tunnels were exceptionally tight but that just added to the mystery.  After a fun day of hiking, driving, and sightseeing we went back to camp and enjoyed a relaxing evening by Grizzly Creek.

Notable birds of Grizzly Creek Campground: Black-headed Grosbeak, Pine Siskins, Violet-green Swallows, Western Tanager, Common Nighthawk, and an Empid flycatcher that gave me quite a show.  I believe it's a Western Wood-Pewee after inspection, please let me know in the comments if you think my little one may be of another variety. 

Cripple Creek & Victor

On our recent vacation near Divide, CO we took a day trip to the nearby mining towns of Cripple Creek and Victor.  In the late 1800's, this area experienced a mining boom and towns were lined with gold.  It's interesting to see a piece of history, still surviving but somehow a shell of its former self.  Look at the view above of Cripple Creek below and the 13,000ers in the background.

Everywhere you turn there are old relicts of the mining days.  A shaft here, a old piece of machinery there.  I know that mining was definitely destructive but it was so much prettier back in the day.  Compare the above mine shaft to the present day mining operation seen between Cripple Creek and Victor, photographed below.

One photo paints a photo of what life must have been like, with opportunities but also hard labor.  The current mining operation just seems so stark and sad.  The hillsides devoid of all vegetation and lined with roads and plows.  I just couldn't find any beauty there and was glad when we left the road to come into the cute town of Victor. 

Cripple Creek is now a gambling town lined with casinos.  In contrast  Victor is a small mountain town with a few open shops and interesting artifacts of better times.  We went into a broom shop where we watched them hand-make brooms with a 100 year old machine.  It was a work of love and craft.  The lady behind the counter had been making brooms for 30 years and it shows in the work.  The Victor Trading Co. is a must stop if you're in the area and have a love for letterpress, cookie cutters, or homemade brooms.

We perhaps never would have visited this area if my mom hadn't been in town.  Thanks to her we could be tourists in our own backyard.  It just reminds me that I need to keep exploring and enjoying the Colorado mountain life.

Mountain Deer

Deer are often easily photographed and each one seems to have its own story behind those gentle eyes.  The last deer in this series especially grabbed my attention.  How did it get that injury?  Would it make it through the winter?  It was the most eager to eat from the feeders and didn't move when approached.  It seemed to be pleading for help and I was happy that the deer came in and grazed the loose feed on the ground.  I hope it makes it this winter and heals up without infection.  It seemed to be doing okay other than the obvious but I certainly wanted to know more.  If only the animals could talk, I would listen for days.

Great Backyard Bird Count 2014

Long overdue post but that's what happens when you're in graduate school, homework comes first.  I did want to share some photos from the recent Great Backyard Bird Count.  My family and I went up to the mountains for some cabin time and my very first bird of the weekend was seen from the front porch - Steller's Jay!

You can see from the ruffled feathers that it was a bit windy.

The best part wasn't the beautiful blue birds but the plethora of Pygmy Nuthatches.  I have never seen as many, counted 11 in total at the feeder at one time!

There were also Mountain Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatch, Hairy Woodpeckers, American Crows, and Clark's Nutcrackers.

I usually don't think of woodpeckers as being huge but this Hairy just looked ginormous to me in comparison to those little Pygmy Nuthatches.  I'll try to get a video up of the little devils attacking the feeder.

How was your GBBC weekend?

Lookout Mountain

The easiest place to find a Pygmy Nuthatch near Denver is a short drive up Lookout Nature Center.  We arrived at the Lookout Nature Center parking lot on a sunny afternoon and was greeted with a very vocal Pygmy Nuthatch in the treetop.

The nature center was really beautiful, the surrounding trails were so peaceful, and the company was delightful.  We watched the sun setting with Mule Deer on the mountain slopes on the way back home.  The white mountain peaks illuminated in the background.

Horsetooth Mountain poem

At the horizon

Where rock tooth touches the sky

Birds sing all day long

Horsetooth Mountain Birthday

For Daisy's 8th birthday, I took the day off of work and we hit the Horsetooth Mountain Falls Hike on a early Monday morning.  This little shelter pup was only adopted earlier this summer so I felt she needed a fun day to help celebrate.  The photo above may look like a complacent furball but she had a good hike, waded in the waterfall pool, and slept hard on the way home in the car.

Horsetooth Mountain Park trailhead has a couple of options, the Falls Trail or the Mountain trail.  We took the easier, more gentle one to the falls.  Round-trip it was 2-3 hours long.  The path went up and down and up and around the gentle foothills outside of Fort Collins.  After the first turn from the trailhead the rest of the trip was without human disturbances on the landscape.

There is a web of trails in Horsetooth Mountain Park and you can travel from this park to Lory State Park if you continue down the web.

After a pleasant morning on the trail, the sun broke free and it warmed up.  Daisy and I were pretty thirsty on our return and I was happy to find a water fountain that meets all needs: kids, adults, and dogs.  I'll be back to Horsetooth Mountain and maybe Daisy and I will make this an annual celebration!

Colorado Mountains

Rocky Mountain National Park

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity..." -John Muir 

Devil's Backbone Open Space

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you -- beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.” -Edward Abbey

Loveland Pass

I live near the mountains now, landlocked, but inspired.  I know it will take some adjustments.  I have lived near the water my whole life.  The Atlantic gave me solace and comfort.  I hope the mountains will do the same.

Boulder Updates

Hey folks, I have surfaced.  I cannot promise how long it will be due to graduate school classes starting in a few weeks but let's get to some updates.  First of all, I moved as you know to Colorado.  For the first month I lived in Boulder, CO while I commuted to Fort Collins to find a rental. I also started the new job and hit the ground running.  It's not my traditional nature center/science education job but it's working with volunteers and animals and teaching as well so it's not half bad.

Let's get down to the good stuff though, I've seen a few birds lately:

These beauties were seen in and around Boulder.  The hiking trails there are plentiful and the birds are pretty cooperative.  Plus, I still can't get over the grebes out here!  They are stunning.  I guess I just love grebes everywhere I go.  I must admit I do miss seeing baby Pied-billed Grebes at Green Cay.  This is the time of year that they normally surface for viewing eyes to see.  In the earlier summer months the babies are kept hidden but the parents usually bring'em out around August to show off.

I hope to keep the updates a little more steady.  Until then, soak in these Flat Irons and wish me luck on this crazy adventure to move out West.