mistressofmuses

On Monday we went on a hike to Red Rocks! It is a park, but because it's also a concert venue, they often close around early afternoon. We'd wanted to maybe go on a hike there a couple weeks ago, but were sunk by the early close. Monday was also an early close, but because we were up so early for my doctor's appointment, we still had plenty of time, haha.

This time we went on one of the easier trails, since our usual favorite has a few pretty steep and exhausting parts. This one was much nicer in terms of less elevation change, but it was pretty warm with nearly zero available shade, so we did end up turning around before too long. We don't want to overdo it for Bella.


A view of the amphitheater from the trail.


Some nice flowers!

Six more pictures, all plants:

Extra prickly prickly pear.


A little barrel cactus!


Some more nice flowers, and little fern fronds.


Yet different white wildflowers!


Some little blue flowers under the yucca.

Sir not appearing in the above picture: a snake! When I leaned down to look at the blue flowers, I discovered there was a snake curled around the base of the yucca under all the leaves and grass! From the bits of the tail and coil that I briefly glimpsed, I think it was a yellow bellied racer. The color was a very smooth grey-green with no visible pattern. I've seen them before, but not terribly often! It looked like it was probably a fairly respectable size, though it was hard to tell exactly how long.


A nice paintbrush!

And finally, this magpie! It landed on the fence in the parking lot as we were getting ready to leave. I set a dog treat down on the fence, which it was perfectly happy to grab before flying away.

Continuing to take advantage of our unseasonably warm weather, we wanted to find somewhere to go on a hike or walk that wouldn't involve heading up into the mountains (where it was likely to be less warm.)

We settled on Bear Creek Lake Park. (It's a nice spot, though it's been many years since I've gone there. We always get a state park pass, so usually stick to those or to the free county parks. Bear Creek Lake is not a state or county park, and has a separate entry fee.)

We're most of the way past our fall colors, though there were still a few areas with gold leaves. We'll have to go back next year, to visit when it's nice and green. It was a very warm day for approaching mid-November, and I was very glad we went out.

We ended up walking two different trails, on the south end of the park, and one more toward the north end near the entrance.


Some very dramatic clouds!


Little helicopter seeds.

Two more from the first trail:

A creek!


Different dramatic clouds.

Then we headed up to another trail closer to the entrance of the park, which follows the creek.


The creek!


More creek! A little bit of fall color still hanging on.

Three more from the second trail:

Kind of a little spillover. Looks like this might have been a spot there used to be a bridge.


Nice wasp nest up in the tree.


And is it a hike if there isn't at least one weird bug?

Glad we were lucky enough to have another week where we could go out and do things!

I think the nice long fall is pretty much over now, but I'm glad we were able to enjoy it while it lasted.

I am so far behind... T_T

Waaaaay back at the beginning of the month, we went back to Castlewood Canyon, wanting to see the rest of the "Cave" trail, which had been closed earlier in the season for nesting turkey vultures. The turkey vulture nesting was definitely a success, judging by how many of them we saw!


As always... Bella!


And we got to see a couple deer! I know that we have just... so many deer, but I'm still always happy to see them. This one was obviously young, still with little fawn spots, though it was most of the way grown.

Sixteen more pictures:

Wandering up the short stretch of road between the parking lot and the trailhead, there were some milkweed that were absolutely COVERED in aphids. But they also had lots of happy ladybugs having a massive buffet, haha.


Looking up from lower on the trail.


The rock wall that was roughly where the trail was closed off last time. I like being able to see the space behind the front "section" of the rock.

We were able to continue on, now that the nesting closures have been lifted.

It wasn't... quite as impressive as hoped. Still didn't find the alleged caves, haha. The cliffs are really pretty, though.


Unfortunately the sun was at just the worst angle for all of these pictures looking up at the cliff, haha. But I liked the dramatic dead tree and the tall bit of the rock.


Again with the sun making it look like a dream sequence.




Turkey vulture!


Something was drilling into this fallen log, ha.

As we were heading back, Alex looked over to the side, and...


The little deer! Mostly grown, just a little small, but still with white fawn spots! So cute. (Yes, this is almost the same picture as above the cut.)


And a second deer, nearby the first.

Bella was very excited to see the deer. (I think I've mentioned before, but she does enjoy "watching" TV sometimes, especially animal programs. There was a wildlife rehab show we used to watch sometimes, and her favorites to watch were seals and deer, haha.) She doesn't seem to want to chase them or anything, just wants to go see them, ha.


That second deer, staring back at Bella. It didn't seem overly concerned.


Speaking of successful turkey vulture nesting... Not sure how easy it is to see, but aaaaall those little black specks in the sky are vultures. SO MANY.


A fairly nice chunk of a shed snake skin. Probably a bull snake... but not nearly as impressive as the one my mom found last weekend!


Another ladybug on milkweed.


A very impressively active wasp nest over the bathrooms, ha.


Bumblebee on a sunflower!

Still more trails to explore, but glad we got to do the rest of the sort of "horseshoe" of this trail, and glad we had a chance to get out for the day.

Continuing from my previous post: part two of the trip back to Castlewood!


Spoilers: we made it to the dam, lol.


A very lovely little lizard.

Sixteen more pictures:

The trail that heads up toward the dam was a little steeper and quite hot, but we headed that way. This section of trail is actually the other end of the trail we'd taken in from the west end of the park, the one we'd had to turn around on and then missed our turn back to the parking lot, ha.

And finally:


The dam was in sight!

That trail leads up to this one, a very short little jog that goes up and around the ruins.


It's dam(n) historic.

We headed down first, around the base of the dam along the creek, where the trail then climbs steeply up along the far side of the dam wall, to the top, and then back down the side we'd approached from.

Parts of that steeper trail up are almost hard to follow; there are a lot of rocks arranged to serve as stairs, but if you aren't at the correct angle, they blend in really well. Bella, brave pathfinder, did not struggle with it as much as I did; despite being very hot and tired by that point, she was excitedly charging up with no struggle to find the correct path, haha.


Climbing up a bit higher. Do Not try to get in the culvert thing, haha. And it's hard to see, but up at the corner of the dam wall is the flimsiest looking ladder.


Looking across the canyon, you can see just a bit of the other side of the dam. Just a pile of stone, really,


Finally, panting and wheezing, we made it up to the top. There was a cute little rock wren!


(Ha, erected.)


There's a fence so that you can't go any farther, but looking across the canyon along the top.


Informative Sign about the dam collapse in 1933. Some neat historical photos! Basically it was effed from the start: it leaked from the beginning, and sandstone erodes very readily.

After this we headed down the other side of the dam, which was a much less steep trail than the side we'd gone up!

At one point a very large snake (I think a yellow-bellied racer?) slithered across the path right in front of me. It went *directly under Bella* and she didn't even notice! I didn't get a good look at the snake, it was so fast, but it looked decently big, and mostly looked smooth and grey, so I'm about 85% confident in the yellow-bellied racer ID.

Poor Bella was pretty exhausted as we were heading back. She was dragging! Rather than head back on the second half of the loop, we crossed back over the creek to go back to that spot by the creek we'd taken a break at before. She didn't even resist when she was nudged into the water, so she was definitely pretty hot!

She felt better pretty fast after a cool-down in the water and a snack, though, ha.

(Except that we think she may have been stung by a bee! She was laying in the sand, and reached over and bit at something, then jumped up and started shaking her head. I found the dying honeybee, which had lost its stinger. I'm not sure that the sting actually "took" though; Bella was acting like it a bit with the head shaking and like she was trying to spit something out, but there was never any swelling at all, and about five minutes later she seemed utterly over it. Poor girl had a rough time of it for a bit!)

I've been really good about applying sunscreen this year, and hadn't gotten a single bad sunburn, for possibly the first summer ever! ...Except that apparently I managed to miss just the backs of my upper arms this day, and by this halfway point of the hike Alex had noticed that I was burning. Ouch!

After Bella had recovered from her exhaustion (and possible bee sting!), we headed back across to the second trail that would take us back to the trailhead.


This was a very well-fed looking lizard! So fat! It was hanging out with the other lizard from above the cut, but they ran to opposite sides of the rock when we approached.

After a bit, we saw a little set of stairs heading back down to the creek, so we decided to head down and see if we could get to the water again.

This spot was even prettier than the first place we'd found, I think!


There was a nice flat rock to sit on, and the water was shallow and slow, and so very peaceful.

Alex basically declared his intent to just live there now, haha. I don't disagree!


Bella even *wanted* to go wading.


Alex reached down into the water to rinse his hands off, and this little toad basically just hopped into his hands! So cute and little!

(If we hadn't just adopted Guava Splash, we might have come home with a new toad.)


Small toad, back in the creek.


At one point I looked down behind me, and there was a very large crayfish approaching along the bank, haha.


Bella contemplating the creek.

Finally we did have to move on, but it really was a beautiful spot.

One last picture:

More mud-dauber nests! I love them.

The hike back was pleasant, until the very end where there's a pretty steep bit back up toward the trailheads. By that time I was very tired, and going *up* more was a struggle, lol. (Considering how much hiking we've done this year, I had hoped my endurance would have improved a bit, but no such luck!)

This was a lovely hike, and that second half of the loop was possibly my favorite of the trails we've hiked in the park. (I know it was Alex's.) I'm glad we finally made it all the way to the damn dam! I'm sure we'll wind up back there again.

Still catching up on posts!

A couple of weeks ago jesus how has it been a couple of weeks we decided to try another new-to-us park. This one borders Lair o' the Bear, but is actually a Denver park, rather than a county park. (Denver has a few mountain parks that they own and maintain, even though the mountains are well outside the city.) It's a bit farther up the road, but we drove past it on our detour the day we were coming back from Centennial Cone.

Taking a look at the info page on it, it looked like there was a decent 3-4 mile total out-and-back trail up to a spot called "Panorama Point," so hopefully there'd be a nice view. So we headed up!

...And it was "up." The trail is moderate difficulty, but it does pretty immediately head up, haha.

I've been disappointed this year that we really haven't seen any snakes. We finally saw one on this hike!


A really nice big, healthy looking garter snake! So cute.

The whole area was very pretty, a nice forest trail. The trail mostly paralleled a narrow little creek.


I was very taken by all the moss around the creek.

Fourteen more pictures:

Bella! I thought she looked cute next to the flowers.


The narrow creek. It was wider at some points, narrower or even entirely dry at others.


Detour around some big rocks.


Beebalm!


A little pond skater in a calm part of the creek.


Another shot of the snake. :) With his head in the sunbeam, haha. The snake was quite long, probably 18 inches or so? I was happy to see one that's clearly doing so well!


We also saw a bunch of woodpeckers! A hairy woodpecker.


A second one. There were at least three we saw at the same time.


A dramatic hollow stump. Very picturesque.

Alex was having some neck issues, and Bella was getting a bit warm, so we took a break for a couple minutes.


Bella set herself up on the trail. Toll road: must pet to pass. (Kidding. She was very good about coming off the trail when someone did come pass us. Even a couple of dogs.)


Not a great picture, but laying down on one of the branches, a black squirrel! (You can see his little ear against the tree trunk.) We rarely get black squirrels here (I've seen them elsewhere, but not much here! We get red squirrels, and sometimes grey ones, but black ones are a rarity.)


I liked all the little baby trees growing in this meadow.


A little bird! I think it's a junco, which are a winter-only bird down in the city, but sometimes stick around year-round at higher elevations.


We also saw so many of these little chipmunks. So cute!

Bella was still a little warm (it really wasn't too terribly hot, but it was humid, and it was all uphill). Wanting to let her cool down, we cut through one of the meadows along the trail to get back to the creek, which we could hear, but not see.

Where we found my favorite of the day...


*_* Tiny chorus frog froglet.

And well... I did have an unused habitat, from before we moved Berry Mad into the bigger one... And boreal chorus frogs are one of the native species it is legal to keep...


It's so small.

After this we turned around and headed back, since we were carrying precious (tiny) cargo.

We'll have to go back another day to see if we can make it all the way up to the promised "panorama point."

Last Tuesday, we decided to pick a park we hadn't been to before to check out. Alex read the pages for a few different county open space parks, and we picked Centennial Cone. It's a bit of a ways up one of the canyons, and definitely a pretty high elevation to start at!


It's a lovely view from up there!


Glanced over at the side of the trail and this little guy was just sitting right there! Super vibrant markings, much more so than the similar lizards I'm more used to seeing.

17 more pictures:

Clouds dipping below the top of the mountain.

Unfortunately, literally about five minutes into the hike we heard thunder. Checking the radar, we were right in the path of the *one* tiny little thunderstorm that popped up over the mountains. *Sigh.*

I think Alex may have been mildly annoyed that I kept stopping anyway (despite the thunder) to take pictures of things, but I can't help myself, lol.


Neat beetle! And some cute little succulent-type plants growing in the rocks.


Lovely mariposa lily!


I just wanted a picture of the paintbrush and didn't even notice the little insect! Probably a katydid or tree cricket nymph of some type? And looks like a second bug of some kind up around the right side, but can't see it well enough to know what kind.


I really wish this had actually been clear, but a cute little bumblebee and a cute little cactus!


I do really like the little barrel cacti.


More paintbrush!

It did start to rain a bit more as we headed into a treed area. It was a bit of a relief, as it cooled it down a bit. This day was *extremely* humid for Colorado. I think I saw that we tied a record dewpoint in Denver.

Though then of course because it was so humid, after the rain dampened everything, we were just wet and sticky the whole time, haha.


Ant lion burrows! :D


Little baby prickly pears!


A robber fly.


I wish I'd had a chance to really get this shot how I wanted it, but the thunder was getting a bit insistent for a while. But I liked the cactus at the edge of the rocks, with the mountains in the background.


From up here you could see the river and the road down below.

The rain mostly lightened up after a while, and the thunder got a bit less threatening. Luckily! For a while it just kept strengthening and it looked like it was headed right for us, ha.


So perfectly spherical!


Looks like someone was marking territory on the tree! (Scrape, scrape.)


One (1) distant deer.


A different neat beetle.


And a big velvet ant.

The rain started up again just a couple minutes after we made it back to the car, so our timing was pretty good!

We ended up taking a pretty long scenic detour in order to avoid some pretty extensive roadwork along the highway we came up.

It was a nice day out! The park is a bit distant for us to likely come to often, but I'd enjoy coming back on a day that had less threat from the weather, just so I could take my time looking at stuff a bit more.

Something being posted in the same week it happened? Will wonders never cease?

On Monday, we decided to go back to Castlewood Canyon. When we went the previous week, we didn't get to do the original hike we'd wanted (going to the dam ruins), so decided we'd take another shot at it, figuring that without the shorter side trails, we'd be able to do that one.

Spoiler: we have still not made it to the damn dam ruins, lol.

But it was still a good day!

We went to the middle parking lot, planning to pick up the creek trail, back down toward the falls we'd visited the previous week. The plan was to then keep following that trail to the dam, and then turn around and head back. At least the first part happened!


Down by the water, looking up at the cliff.


One of my favorite things we saw: it's a hummingbird nest! Lichens and seed fluff... It was so tiny and adorable. I was surprised it was so close to the path, though it was tucked up under the rocks.


Bella's postcard of the day, haha.

Eleven more pictures, mostly plants and critters:

Tiny baby acorns!


The asters were blooming very nicely.


Kind of a neat groundcovering plant. The leaves are very stiff.


These ants were enormous! Big carpenter ants, hauling stuff!


More pine cones at their fun "alien lifeform" stage.

Unfortunately there were a lot more people there than the first day we went... mostly unfortunate just because there were so many loud groups. I'd rather not listen to people shouting at each other.

Turns out, though, that if you keep heading toward the falls (instead of stopping at the overlook, where we had the time before), you can actually head down to the creek and get to the water.

It was a bit crowded, with a few different groups - some parents with little kids, some high school or college-age kids - having claimed most of the spots along the water itself.


Down in the creek. (Just past those rocks there is the waterfall that can be seen from higher up the trail.)

Unfortunately, I slipped and ate shit on the shore, haha. The mud-covered stone of the creekbed was SO slick, and I fell pretty hard. I was fine! Banged up my right hand a bit (didn't notice it until a couple days later, but ended up with a pretty gnarly bruise). The worst part was probably that I soaked my shoes and socks, and had to spend the rest of the day with squishy socks, haha.

On the way back out was where we found the little hummingbird nest, which I found utterly charming and adorable.

And next to that...


This guy! Doing a truly admirable job of mimicking a willow leaf! Holding itself at such a perfect angle to look like one of the leaves... very impressive! Obviously a sphinx moth caterpillar, but I didn't know there were any that used these willows as a host plant.

Up a little farther we found more raspberries, and absolutely snacked on a few.

Despite my fall, I was doing all right. Unfortunately, Alex was struggling. It was the first time in several weeks that he was having a rough time - he's done better this summer than last. Unfortunately, carrying one of the bags had really started to put pressure on a bad part of his neck, so he was starting to get light-headed spells in addition to pain. Plus his knee had been bugging him, and compensating for that was starting to aggravate his hip... so the usual cascade of one problem setting off all the rest.

So, alas, we did not continue on the trail to the dam, but instead decided to turn around.


This adorable lizard was hanging out back up at the trail.

We took a break for a bit, having a rest and a snack and all. Bella looked up, so I looked up...


SO MANY TURKEY VULTURES!

Apparently the raptor nesting program is going quite well!


One more Bella, because.

Unfortunately, sometime after this... we failed to notice the trail back up to the lot where we'd parked. I do not know how we missed it! We jokingly asked why there was more trail on the way back than on the way there... and then started to realize that we did not recognize the landmarks we were seeing.

Usually, this wouldn't be a huge issue, except we'd turned around because Alex was having a rough time, and we were trying to cut the hike short. Also, wet socks. (Though Alex's issues were way worse.) Bleh.

We should have just turned around, but knew the trail eventually would meet up with the homestead trail. Our initial thought was to get there and just walk along the road back, thinking that might be more direct... Not really considering that the road sucks and would probably not actually be a safe choice, plus wouldn't have anywhere to stop if Alex needed to rest.

So we walked extra, just to have to turn around and walk more extra to get back. Whoops.

We did get back to the homestead area, and sat at one of the benches over there for a while to rally. Bella took a power nap. Then we headed back along a different trail that was a fairly straight shot back to where we'd parked.


There was a bunny, though!

Minus the unplanned detour, it was a nice day. I was happy about the critters we saw, like the lizard and the vultures and the sphinx moth caterpillar. Also the little hummingbird nest, and some neat plants and such.

Maybe someday we'll make it to the dam, lol.

Last Monday, we went up to Lair o' the Bear, which is another of the county parks. I always like this one, though since it's one of the closer ones, sometimes it can be a bit crowded. Our day got off to a slightly later start than we'd wanted, but it worked out, because there weren't too many people by the time we got there.

I'm splitting this one into two posts, too. Most of the pictures will be on this post, but I'll do a second one of the current graffiti in one of the tunnels. Too many pictures, as always!


I really like this one of Bella. Such soft eyes!


A surprisingly cooperative pygmy nuthatch. Not a species I see super often, so that was exciting. (It was a good birding day in general.)


I really liked these flowers. They were so bright.

Eighteen more pictures:

There used to be a sign right by the trailhead, talking about a homestead that used to be there. There are a couple pieces of the foundation that are still out in the field. I do say "used to be," because the sign is completely gone, now. The field is super overgrown, and none of the remains are visible from the lot. I guess they decided that if no one can tell it's there, they don't want to draw attention to it.


I still wandered out through the grass to look. One time there was a neat snake over by the old chimney. No snake this time, though.


The official greeting committee! I think this is a young red-winged blackbird. It was not terribly disturbed by people walking by.


Some nice flowers.


The creek.


Neat old willow tree.


Spittlebug nests!


Bella by the creek.


Bellflowers!


Bella again!


Nice view of the creek.


Alex and Bella. <3 Even Alex was happy enough with this picture. (Minus the light flare... creek must be haunted, it's obviously a ghost.)


A fast-moving section of the creek.


Honeybee on milkweed! :)


And a bumblebee on a sunflower.


A flycatcher of some type... a pewee, I think.


Chickadee!

The trail goes down next to some private property, which includes a rentable... castle. Lol. The first time we saw it it was a bit of a surprise.


A very fairytale-looking bridge, for sure.

We used that as our turnaround point. I was impressed with how well Bella was doing! It wasn't as hot a day, and she got a bunch of wading breaks, but she made it pretty far before she started lagging any.


And finally, a mushroom on a tree! Only a little inappropriate looking, lol.

This was a really pleasant walk, and it was a great day to be out.

Last Sunday, after hitting the halfway point of my time off, Alex and I went to Roxborough State Park.


The rock formations are beautiful.


Absolutely huge bumblebee (appropriately) on a bee plant! I love these bees. They're at least an inch long, maybe a little bigger.

17 more pictures:

Small stripey lizard behind the grass! This must have been a young one, as it was very little.


Neat longhorn beetle on the milkweed in the garden by the ranger station.

We'd been a little afraid that it would be more crowded than usual, since we were going on a weekend day. I'd say we saw maybe a few more groups than usual, but it really wasn't too bad. It was a pretty hot day, and that probably kept some people away.


A little birds nest up on one of the historic house's outbuildings.


The historic house.


The back side of the house.

Down in the trees behind the house there were wrens nesting! They were very cute.


One of the parent wrens. Both were coming and going.


The nest, in the hole in the tree. You can barely see one of the adults' tails.

The wrens were very impressive hunters! We sat and watched for quite a while, so got to see them come back very frequently, with all manner of insects for their very loud little babies.


Lovely red rocks.


A cute little moth. ...I think this type camouflages itself as bird poop, ha.


Looking up the cliffs.

I never got to see it, but we heard a frog while we were on this part of the trail! It was a chirpier sound than the typical bullfrogs, so maybe a chorus frog?


Stormclouds moving in...

We were a bit worried about the storm, but aside from a bit of thunder and a few spits of wind-blown rain, it didn't do anything.


There were so many of the big bumblebees!


I always love the pollen saddlebags.


I like the trees growing on top of the rocks. Scale is really hard to convey, but those are full-sized pine trees up top.


As we were heading back, the stormclouds looked pretty cool.

And then two pictures from the same day, but not from Roxborough:


I'm pretty sure this itty bitty thing on my mom's geranium is a katydid nymph! So tiny!


And then a bit later, even more dramatic storm clouds from our apartment.

Last Tuesday was the day after we lost Cy. We didn't really... feel like doing anything, but also felt like we *should* do something, rather than just stay home and be sad.

Bella had spent almost all of Monday stuck in her kennel, so we wanted to let her go do things, too.

We decided to go to Matthews/Winters, a county park. It was a good choice: it kept us from dwelling quite so much, and it was a nice day to be outside. It was a park Cy always really liked, because of the creek at the front, and I kept getting teary at random, but it was still good.


View from the parking lot.


There were tons of wildflowers. The lupine is very happy this year!

Twelve more pictures, mostly wildflowers:

Mushrooms!

Matthews/Winters is the site of the Mount Vernon Cemetery. There are only two remaining headstones, though the cemetery likely includes additional burials. As far as I know, there's nothing else remaining of the town.

The helpful informative sign provides a little bit about the two known graves:


James H. Judy, died 1867, aged 21 years, 8 months, 15 days.


Rev. Isaiah Rogers Dean, died in 1860. [Apparently he moved to Colorado to try and treat his consumption (tuberculosis).]


Globemallow.


I love all the new growth on this prickly pear!


Just a nice view.


More of the lovely lupines.


Yucca flower.


Red-tailed hawk, high overhead.


Blanketflower.


Bluebells.


Silly, but I was trying to get a picture of the fritillary butterfly, but here it looks like it was pursuing Alex and Bella down the pathway, haha.

It was a very warm day, and it did wipe Bella out a bit, but she got to wade in the creek at the end, which she was more enthusiastic about than usual. As usual, she napped for a bit and was ready to go again, ha.