mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2025-08-16 09:54 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2025-08-16 09:54 pm
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Monday, August 04: Hewlitt Gulch (+ the Poudre River)
I'm... quite behind on posting.
Back on August 4th, we went up to the Poudre canyon. A long time ago (I think back in 2010, when Alex was visiting me before he moved here), we'd driven up the canyon and picked a random trailhead to take a walk at.
At the time, it was spring, which was lovely, as there were a lot of blooming trees. Fortunately/unfortunately, there was also quite a bit of snowmelt, and we hit a point before too long on the trail that would have required more wading than we were prepared for, so we had to turn back.
We'd intended to go back at some point, because it really was a very pleasant walk, going past some old house foundations, and through some nice bits of forest and meadows, but we never had.
...And then I could not remember anything about the name of the trailhead, haha. Luckily, I was able to just start looking up trail info, and there was a helpful description on the Poudre Wilderness Volunteers website that sounded like it matched up with what I remembered of the mystery trail, leading us to the "Hewlett Gulch" trail.
This was correct!
An extremely vibrant blue butterfly. Maybe a silvery blue? The different species are so similar to each other, I really couldn't say.
It's Bella! She had fun climbing around the little "cave" in the rocks there.
In someone's yard right up by the trailhead. Local wildlife! A bighorn sheep, an elk, some bear cubs as well as adult bears. Bigfoot. :)
Green pine cone.
A very dramatic dead tree.
Bella being so brave! (This was not really much of a "cave"; it only goes back a couple feet.)
I really liked some of the little rock wall near the faux cave. The way the moss streaked along the striations in the rock was neat.
It was a pretty hot day, so we tried to take it slow, with a bunch of little breaks in the shade, especially for Bella.
Lookit this little hotdog.
It was slightly further down the trail than I remembered, but here was the building foundation that I remembered from our previous trip.
The first time, 15ish years ago, there was a big snake over in the foundation. Sadly no snake this time.
More of that foundation.
This little moth landed on me. Apparently he liked my sweat, haha.
Picture looking back the way we'd come. You can see on that middle hill all the burned trees. There was a big fire that came through in I believe 2012, and you can still see a ton of the damage.
Ye olde telephone pole.
Another building foundation.
I wish it had been a bit more in focus, but a very tiny jumping spider, between the pine needles.
Shortly after this, poor Bella started getting a bit too warm. The creek that had blocked off part of the trail before was completely dry, so that wasn't an option to help cool down. We decided to head back (even though we hadn't gotten quite as far as hoped) and maybe find a river access point back down the canyon.
Some type of velvet ant, I think.
Back by the little cave earlier on the trail, we took another break in the slightly cooler spot in the shade. Bella still wanted to poke around.
Some kind of insect nest, probably a mud-dauber wasp of some sort.
Some wild phlox.
We headed back down the canyon, and picked one of the river access points to pull over and give Bella a chance to wade. We'd hoped the first trail would have the creek along it, but it was dry at all the points we encountered it.
She was very offended that we suggest such a thing! Lol, she was not impressed with the river, even in nice shallow areas, so we didn't stay long.
The river!
Lol.
Back on August 4th, we went up to the Poudre canyon. A long time ago (I think back in 2010, when Alex was visiting me before he moved here), we'd driven up the canyon and picked a random trailhead to take a walk at.
At the time, it was spring, which was lovely, as there were a lot of blooming trees. Fortunately/unfortunately, there was also quite a bit of snowmelt, and we hit a point before too long on the trail that would have required more wading than we were prepared for, so we had to turn back.
We'd intended to go back at some point, because it really was a very pleasant walk, going past some old house foundations, and through some nice bits of forest and meadows, but we never had.
...And then I could not remember anything about the name of the trailhead, haha. Luckily, I was able to just start looking up trail info, and there was a helpful description on the Poudre Wilderness Volunteers website that sounded like it matched up with what I remembered of the mystery trail, leading us to the "Hewlett Gulch" trail.
This was correct!
An extremely vibrant blue butterfly. Maybe a silvery blue? The different species are so similar to each other, I really couldn't say.
It's Bella! She had fun climbing around the little "cave" in the rocks there.
17 more pictures:
In someone's yard right up by the trailhead. Local wildlife! A bighorn sheep, an elk, some bear cubs as well as adult bears. Bigfoot. :)
Green pine cone.
A very dramatic dead tree.
Bella being so brave! (This was not really much of a "cave"; it only goes back a couple feet.)
I really liked some of the little rock wall near the faux cave. The way the moss streaked along the striations in the rock was neat.
It was a pretty hot day, so we tried to take it slow, with a bunch of little breaks in the shade, especially for Bella.
Lookit this little hotdog.
It was slightly further down the trail than I remembered, but here was the building foundation that I remembered from our previous trip.
The first time, 15ish years ago, there was a big snake over in the foundation. Sadly no snake this time.
More of that foundation.
This little moth landed on me. Apparently he liked my sweat, haha.
Picture looking back the way we'd come. You can see on that middle hill all the burned trees. There was a big fire that came through in I believe 2012, and you can still see a ton of the damage.
Ye olde telephone pole.
Another building foundation.
I wish it had been a bit more in focus, but a very tiny jumping spider, between the pine needles.
Shortly after this, poor Bella started getting a bit too warm. The creek that had blocked off part of the trail before was completely dry, so that wasn't an option to help cool down. We decided to head back (even though we hadn't gotten quite as far as hoped) and maybe find a river access point back down the canyon.
Some type of velvet ant, I think.
Back by the little cave earlier on the trail, we took another break in the slightly cooler spot in the shade. Bella still wanted to poke around.
Some kind of insect nest, probably a mud-dauber wasp of some sort.
Some wild phlox.
We headed back down the canyon, and picked one of the river access points to pull over and give Bella a chance to wade. We'd hoped the first trail would have the creek along it, but it was dry at all the points we encountered it.
She was very offended that we suggest such a thing! Lol, she was not impressed with the river, even in nice shallow areas, so we didn't stay long.
The river!
One more kind of silly picture:
Lol.
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Wow at the fire damage still being visible for a fire from over 12 years ago.
Bella looks like she's having a great time! I can't believe she didn't appreciate the river, though.
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The fire damage still being that prominent definitely surprised me. I expected to still see some, but... I would have thought there'd be a little more regrowth by this point (even if there aren't going to be full-sized trees yet.) But I guess pines can take decades to grow, so I suppose it's to be expected.
(Though it makes me sad for the series of fires we had in 2020. We had three of the five biggest fires in state history that year, each over a hundred thousand acres, and knowing how long it'll take those to recover... ugh, fires suck.)
Bella did have fun, up until it got too hot for her. (And then she kept having fun as soon as we made it back to the shade.) She's so weird about water sometimes. Every once in a while she'll wade in without hesitation, other times she acts like it's the end of the world to get her feet wet.
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ETA: LOVE THE 8647 GRAFITTI!!!!!
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Bella did have a very fun time, up until it got a bit too hot. Even then she was having fun, ha. But seriously! If I'd had sandals, I'd have absolutely wanted to dunk my feet... but oh no, she was terribly offended when we made her get her feet wet, ha.
It's been hot here, too. Not a lot of days over 100 degrees (though a few), but basically every day has been in the high 90s.
We have a few species of blues around here, and they're so beautiful! They're very small - maybe about the size of a nickle. The blue is so eye-catching, but it's so hard to get them with their wings open. (They frequently perch on the shorelines of rivers/creeks/lakes to get water, but they sit with their wings closed, and the undersides are a lot less striking.) This is one of the best pictures I've gotten, I think.
The graffiti was a delight. Basically every trash can and dumpster along this stretch of canyon, and at this little picnic area/trailhead in particular had the same graffiti. :)
(Alex and I had been talking earlier about how a lot of the mountain communities are pretty, but tend toward being conservative hellholes. But in this stretch of canyon we saw a Harris sign, a pride flag, and all the 8647s, so it had great vibes!)
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Very lovely of the blue butterfly to choose a nicely contrasting setting and coordinating flowers.
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The blue butterfly was *shockingly* considerate! It's usually very difficult to get them with their wings open at all, much less posing nicely on a photogenic flower!
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