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Tuesday the 12th we decided to go back to Castlewood Canyon... again. This time we decided to go in at the east entrance to the park, since previously we'd only done trails that start on the west side. There was hope that we could make it to the damn dam this time!
The park looks very different from this side. It's a lot of flat, desert-y grassland, with rocks and scrubby pines. Still very pretty, but very different from the other side of the park, where you get into the forested canyon area fairly immediately.
There's a big stretch of farmland off to the side of the trail, which looks a bit dramatic in comparison to the side of the canyon where the trail is.
A chickadee in a piñon.
Little Bella Hotdog.
Wasp and some soldier beetles on wildflowers.
Dramatic rocks.
Predatory wasp and her caterpillar victim.
Distant, so not a great picture, but down in one of the fields this deer was boinging along very enthusiastically, haha.
Eventually, the trail takes a turn more toward the canyon itself, and starts to parallel the creek. There was a nice little trail that led down near the water (if you're willing to scramble over some rocks to get across.)
This was good timing, since it let us take a nice break. Bella got to wade a little (if reluctantly) and take a little rest.
I liked this little rock pool, cut off juuuuuust barely from the rest of the creek, unless the levels rise again.
There was a really pretty, peaceful spot to sit on the rocks.
Looking upstream from the spot we were sitting.
In the sand by the creek, another blue butterfly. ("Blue" is the family of butterflies, not just a color descriptor!) I thiiiiiink, looking at pictures of different species, that this one is a "Boisduval's Blue", judging by the spotting pattern, but... they are all very similar to each other.
The butterfly fluttered around for quite a long while... much to Bella's consternation.
She kept spinning around to follow the butterfly. It was very funny to watch. I was delighted to get this picture where you can see her expression and where the butterfly's wings are open, so you can see how blue it is! (Also how small it is.)
The nice spot by the creek was at roughly the halfway point of a loop formed by a pair of trails. However, there's also an additional trail that meets up around the same point and heads toward the dam from that side. It adds about a mile (going there and back) to the total, but we hadn't made it to the dam yet, so that's the way we headed after we had taken our break.
This was a day with lots of pictures, so splitting it into two posts.
The park looks very different from this side. It's a lot of flat, desert-y grassland, with rocks and scrubby pines. Still very pretty, but very different from the other side of the park, where you get into the forested canyon area fairly immediately.
There's a big stretch of farmland off to the side of the trail, which looks a bit dramatic in comparison to the side of the canyon where the trail is.
Eleven more pictures:
A chickadee in a piñon.
Little Bella Hotdog.
Wasp and some soldier beetles on wildflowers.
Dramatic rocks.
Predatory wasp and her caterpillar victim.
Distant, so not a great picture, but down in one of the fields this deer was boinging along very enthusiastically, haha.
Eventually, the trail takes a turn more toward the canyon itself, and starts to parallel the creek. There was a nice little trail that led down near the water (if you're willing to scramble over some rocks to get across.)
This was good timing, since it let us take a nice break. Bella got to wade a little (if reluctantly) and take a little rest.
I liked this little rock pool, cut off juuuuuust barely from the rest of the creek, unless the levels rise again.
There was a really pretty, peaceful spot to sit on the rocks.
Looking upstream from the spot we were sitting.
In the sand by the creek, another blue butterfly. ("Blue" is the family of butterflies, not just a color descriptor!) I thiiiiiink, looking at pictures of different species, that this one is a "Boisduval's Blue", judging by the spotting pattern, but... they are all very similar to each other.
The butterfly fluttered around for quite a long while... much to Bella's consternation.
She kept spinning around to follow the butterfly. It was very funny to watch. I was delighted to get this picture where you can see her expression and where the butterfly's wings are open, so you can see how blue it is! (Also how small it is.)
The nice spot by the creek was at roughly the halfway point of a loop formed by a pair of trails. However, there's also an additional trail that meets up around the same point and heads toward the dam from that side. It adds about a mile (going there and back) to the total, but we hadn't made it to the dam yet, so that's the way we headed after we had taken our break.
This was a day with lots of pictures, so splitting it into two posts.
