Mary's Peak, Oregon Hike - June 21, 2010

Back in June we took a driving trip to Oregon for a family gathering in Portland. After the party we made our way down the coast and were tempted to put on our boots by the opportunity to hike to the highest point in Oregon's Coast Range - Mary's Peak, also noted as a Botanical Special Interest Area.

Just west of Corvallis on Hwy 34 Mary's Peak Road leads you into the Siuslaw National Forest, which was loaded with wild iris in full bloom. The half mile hike begins in an open rolling green meadow with views in all directions. Once we got on the trail, the Fawn Lilies really caught our attention. With only around 500' of gain, this is a very pleasing little hike and a great leg stretch on a long road trip. There are other trails in the area that we'll need to check out next trip.

Hiking with Atlanta Friends July 10-17, 2010

Carol and Susan in 1979

Last month we had a visit from an old friend from Susan's college days, Carol and her husband Luke. Susan and Carol both graduated from Miami University, or for clarification, Miami of Ohio. Miami was a university when Florida belonged to Spain, Carol reminded me of a popular saying. We reconnected a couple years ago online, and were happy to finally get together in person after so much time.

Carol and Susan on the trail to Mills Lake

Neither Carol nor I hiked in college, but since now we both do, we looked forward to showing them some of our favorite spots in Estes and Rocky. Every day we enjoyed warm weather and sunny skies. Carol and Luke weren't acclimated to the elevation, but their Atlanta adapted metabolisms fared better than ours in the July afternoon heat.

Our first hike was in Glacier Gorge to Alberta Falls, Jewel Lake and Mills Lake. Next we hiked to the top of Lily Mountain for the spectacular 360 panoramic views. Last, but always a favorite of ours, we hiked up to Deer Mountain.

Other outings included a trip to the Fish Creek beaver ponds, watching the bighorns at Sheep Lakes, and a drive over Trail Ridge Road with lunch at Pancho and Lefty's. It was a really fun week with them, and we look forward to visiting them in Atlanta soon!

Mohawk Lakes - August 23, 2010

The weather forecast for Breckenridge last Monday looked iffy at best, but we packed up our gear and headed out with our fingers crossed for sunshine. After a busy summer, our son Steve and his girlfriend Lauren were finally going to be home long enough, and have some time off of work together, so that we could try a hike we've been talking about doing for a long time. Plan B was to drive west and hike to Hanging Lake, but we all really hoped to do Mohawk lakes.

We decided to stay two nights in Breck so we wouldn't have to do any driving the day we hiked and could take our time on a scenic route. On Sunday, clear skies prevailed all across Trail Ridge Road and the construction delays were minimal. The newly paved road is wonderful, by the way. (Just stay away from the asphalt strippers when driving top down in a convertible! But that's another story...)

On the other side at Kawuneeche Valley beaver ponds, two young bull moose were happily grazing, and the sunshine gave their coats a beautiful rich glow. I loved seeing these guys! At noon, we noticed stopped at the recently reopened Grand Lake Lodge for a snack on the patio. Then down the road, thanks to a tip from Sandi at GLL, we watched an Osprey nest across from Lake Granby visited by three very vocal and active young birds.

Finally arriving in Breckenridge in time for dinner with Steve (Lauren was working), we ate pizza at Fatty's, then checked into our room at The Lodge & Spa at Breckenridge. This was the best place we've ever stayed in Breck. A spacious room with a wall of windows to take in Baldy at sunrise, plus a decent breakfast included in the bargain summer rates. The lodge is very 1980's rustic, but unlike some newer places we've stayed, the windows open. You need that in the summer!

Steve and Lauren met us Monday morning at our lodge for breakfast, then we hit the trailhead before 9AM. Quite an accomplishment for this group! The first mile and a half was a quiet walk through the forest, with the trail softened by pine needles. Just off the main trail, we stopped to admire a secluded meadow and lovely little pond. As we walked on, we started noticing mushrooms of all kinds along the way, more than I'd ever seen before on a trail. Besides the usual looking ones, we saw bright red ones with little white lumps, amorphous yellow ones that Steve thought resembled some sort of human organ, medium brown bumpy ones that reminded me of potatoes, teeny dark brown ones growing out of dead tree stumps, gigantic ones with toasted marshmallow crinkly tops, and many more. We had our "mushroom eyes" on now and under the junipers and on hillsides saw entire groves of them clustered together, just waiting for someone to place mini gnome figurines under their caps.

Now the forest opened up and the trail became a dirt road for a short stretch. It would be possible to drive up to this point, but we decided that would be cheating. After passing Mayflower Lake, we came across the unexpected "last bastion of freedom in this here Summit County" Continental Cabin. Log books with entries beginning in the 1980's were kept inside the shelter cabin, along with a wood stove, desk, snow shovel and hammock that had seen better days. We were sure to latch the door upon leaving so no animals would decide to call it home.

In the area around Continental Falls and another smaller falls below it which we saved to explore on our way down, we started seeing more wildflowers. The gentians were particularly plentiful. Parry Primrose plants were also common, but the blooms long gone. They must have been spectacular in July.

Ruins of mining cabins dotted the landscape as we approached Lower Mohawk Lake. We rested next to an old mining tower, perched on a flat rock outcropping with great views towards Breckenridge and beyond.

Large rocks protruded out of the lower lake, and we looked up wondering in what direction the trail would take us up over the ridge to Upper Mohawk lake. Assuming the lake was just beyond a waterfall towards the right, we headed in that general direction. Just past another large cluster of mushrooms sat a marmot. He let us approach fairly close before darting into his burrow under a big rock. At the top of some mine tailings, we consulted Mike's GPS and determined we'd gotten off trail. Heading back to the east, we continued to walk on lightly traveled paths towards another cascading waterfall. To the right, a straight but steep approach on loose rocks led to Upper Mohawk Lake. To the left across a stream, over slabby rock outcroppings was a longer, winding route. After some debate, and flip-flopping on my part, Mike and Lauren started their scramble up the steeper approach, while Steve and I went left. They made it to the top much faster, but we all agreed going back it would be safer to take the more gradual descent.

Upper Mohawk Lake was a beautiful emerald color even under increasingly dark skies. To our left we heard pikas, and saw one of the more curious little guys checking us out from below. We ate our lunch and relaxed until the winds picked up and it started to sprinkle. Luckily, the clouds dispersed and we had great weather all the way down. We noted a small cairn at the turnoff we should have taken heading out of Lower Mohawk Lakes, so we took a few minutes to build it into something more substantial.

Back in Breckenridge, we wanted to have dinner right away and opted to eat on the outdoor patio of Kenosha Steakhouse so we wouldn't have to take time to clean up. Yummy crème brûlée at Briar Rose concluded our evening. What a great day it was! We said goodbye to Lauren and Steve because they both worked early on Tuesday.

In the morning we headed back home via Hwy 9 again to check out a huge osprey nest we'd noticed in Silverthorne on the way down. It was empty then, but this morning another three young osprey were busy chatting and flying around. A woman who lived in the area told us the nesting site, a power pole, had been detached from the power lines and moved slightly one winter for the birds' safety. The site is right off a golf course and even has an observation bench.

We zig zagged our way home through the Arapaho NWR, Hebron Waterfowl Area, Walden, Gould but unfortunately arrived at the Moose Visitor Center just after their 5PM closing. The center's back porch was filled with birds, enticed by multiple feeders and we were thrilled to spot our first Black-headed Grosbeak.

Our not so short shortcut home took us on an unpaved, narrow, winding and very rocky road between Rts 14 and 125. Don't go this way unless your intent is to go 4-wheeling! Next time we'll take the road that ends up at Rand.

Back at the west entrance to RMNP much later than expected, we watched the moon rising over the "back" side of the divide. The ride home over Trail Ridge Road was fantastically surreal, looking down at thick moonlit cloud banks which filled Forest Canyon.

Une Belle Randonnée dans la Gorge de Tyndall

Earlier this week we had the opportunity to meet two very friendly women from Paris and Provence. Language was no barrier to the smiles and laughter, which came easily to Rosie and Monique, who were happy to be visiting Colorado and hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The hike we chose is the classic Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake route through Tyndall Gorge. Although Rosie initially said she would be up for just 3 hours of hiking, after bagging Emerald, she insisted we add Lake Haiyaha to the list. I think there was also a French joke somewhere in that Native American name, which perhaps someday we'll understand.

We got a late start on the hike, which may have worked out to our advantage because the parking lot was not full and the lakes were not crowded. The weather - superbe! (A word we heard many times from the non-English speaking Monique.)

After the hike, we had just enough time before dusk to take in a very active evening at the Fish Creek beaver pond. The highlight was watching an adult reach up and snag a branch from a freshly felled tree, then swim across the pond with it for four small kits to munch on.

We hope to visit France before too long, and a new hike has been added to our ever-growing list. Rosie told us about the Tour du Mont Blanc or TMB, a trail which goes around Mont Blanc through France, Switzerland and Italy. It looks fantastic: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Tour+du+Mont+Blanc

As I write this post, Rosie and Monique are flying home to France. Au revoir et à bientôt, nos amies!

Deer Mountain June 6, 2010

Deer Mountain will always be special to me and Mike, and we try to hike it every year. It is the first hike we ever did together, and because of that, it is the place we chose to be married June 5, 2005.

The views along the trail of Deer Mountain do not disappoint and today was no exception. Not a lot of wildflowers yet, but some Pasque Flowers were still blooming and some Early Larkspur were just getting started. It is hard to beat the near 360 degree view at the summit, stretching from Lumpy Ridge, past Lake Estes, The Town, Longs Peak and all the way around to Chapin, Chiquita and Ypsilon.

Here are some pictures from the hike.

Today began as an unusually hot hike for early June, a good reminder of why it is good to start a 6.75 mile summer hike before 11:30AM! But interesting cloud formations eventually gave way to rain and even some grapple, another reminder to start your hike earlier in the day! After an hour or so, we left headed back down because of thunder, but the rain was refreshing and made our hike back down much more comfortable.

Ouzel Falls - April 27, 2010

Tuesday was so sunny, warm and calm, we just had to get out and enjoy the day. We haven't hiked much in the Wild Basin area just north of Allenspark, so decided to head up to Ouzel Falls. As novice birders, we now know it could have been named American Dipper Falls, but I'm glad they went with the more exotic sounding "Ouzel."

The hike is recorded to have 950 feet of gain over 2.7 miles, but since the access road was closed the distance ended up being a bit longer. For some reason the GPS in Mike's phone couldn't get a lock on our location, so we don't have a trail map or exact distances this time but we think our 7 hour hike covered about 7.5 miles round trip. With an ending elevation of 9,450 feet, the trail was completely snow covered by the halfway point. Micro spikes didn't help with the post-holing, so the hike was a better workout than we'd bargained for.

Just a few minutes past the trailhead, we came to the lovely Copeland Falls and played around taking pictures on the rocky shore. Interesting icicles hung from the edges of the waterfall, as well as from fallen branches near the water. As the trail continued along the North St. Vrain Creek, we passed snow-covered cascades with just a hint of flowing water flowing underneath. I especially enjoy all the little bridges in this area.

Further along, now in fairly deep snow, if was fun to see the "backside" of Longs and Meeker peeking out in bright sunshine to the north. We rested and had our lunch a short distance before Ouzel Falls, which we thought might be completely frozen, but the top section was flowing big time above the frozen ice formations below. It was so great to be surrounded by ice and snow, but no coats needed! We enjoyed our snack of raw almonds and dark chocolate (Green & Black 85%), climbed all over the rocks and generally goofed around for nearly an hour.

Gosh, how could it be almost 4 o'clock already! Gathering up our gear, we headed back down, stopping at Copeland Falls once more to do a long exposure shot in the late afternoon light. We made it back to Estes Park in time to watch the beavers along Fish Creek Road at around 7PM. What a great day!

In Search of a Great Blue Heron

I'd been following the reports from eBird.org to find a spot to view Great Blue Herons. Late in March, one had been observed at a small pond near Erie, CO so off we drove. We were lucky enough to see two of these interesting birds at fairly close range.

Murphy's Law in action - when we got home, we learned that a GBH had been seen that day back home at Lake Estes!

Crosier Mountain Hike

Yesterday we decided to hike Crosier Mountain, a hike we did in June 2008. We loved Piper Meadows, the beautiful green meadow about halfway up which provided a lovely foreground for views of the Continental Divide. Our enthusiasm for Spring preceded the season, because it turns out in April any part of the meadow that is not white with snow is still quite brown. The trail was a little muddy and slushy in a few spots until past the meadow when we encountered mostly all snow, which made for a much tougher climb to the top. I sure wished I'd packed those micro spikes! We did finally make it to the summit, which was surprisingly calm considering the weather. There was a summit register in a PVC pipe, but one of the endcaps was missing, and the spiral notebook inside was completely soaked.

Various songbirds chirped and tweeted all along the trail, but Dark-eyed Juncos were the bird of the day. We saw tons of them flashing their white tail feathers as they flew around nearly every low lying shrub-filled area. On the way out, near dusk, Mike also spotted a red-tailed hawk landing high in the pines overlooking the meadow.

This trail is horse, dog and mountain bike friendly, but we met only one other hiker all day. His dog had found a large section of deer vertebrae and ribs, which she proudly carried in her mouth. I believe we may have seen some bear and cat tracks in the snow. Any ideas of who made the tracks pictured?

On this hike we were trying out some relatively new photo gear. The summit photo was taken with a new Sigma 10-20mm f3.5 ultrawide angle lens. The bird pictures were taken with a Canon 100-400mm lens we got last month. Mike was also testing a new chest pack to carry the DSLR with zoom lens attached.

This hike was fairly strenuous -- over 8 miles round trip, and almost 2000 feet of overall gain, with a lot of up and down. Here's a map of the area.

P.S. If you like Turkey Vultures, and who doesn't, you might enjoy our photos of the one Mike spotted on the way to Glen Haven, just above the little pond on the east side of the road after you turn onto Steamer Drive.

Sandhill Cranes in Nebraska

We enjoyed the Sandhill Cranes at Monte Vista NWR so much, that we decided we needed to travel to Nebraska to see the greatest concentration of them in the world. There is an 80 mile wide migration "flyway" located roughly between Kearney and Grand Island through which 80% of the world's population of Sandhills travel in March and early April. This means up to 600,000 cranes enjoy the safety of the Platte River at night, while fueling up mostly on corn in the neighboring farm fields.



The weather was great for viewing and we saw temperatures well into the 70's. Monday evening we arrived in time to see the birds arriving from roadside viewing platforms near the Rowe Sanctuary and Audubon Center. As the full moon rose, wave after wave of birds filled the skies in layers, from directly overhead to as far out on the horizon as you could see. The magnitude of their numbers was inescapable as their calls surrounded us with sound.

We spent the night up near Grand Island so that Tuesday morning we were closer to the Nebraska Nature and Visitor's Center, where we had scheduled a 6AM Crane Tour. After a brief and informative orientation, our friendly and knowledgeable guide escorted us on a short drive to the viewing blind parking area. A 10 minute walk in the dark got us to the blinds, modified truck boxes which were a little noisy in the morning breeze off the river. At first the birds were mostly still, chatting quietly amongst themselves. As the sun rose, it was fantastic to see them waking up and start their "dancing" with crescendoing calls heard up and down the river. We stayed until 9AM by which time most of the birds had flown off, enjoying our own conversations with other folks in the blind.

After a late breakfast, we drove around the local farmlands to watch the birds feeding in the fields. All along the route we would see them "loafing" as well as flying overhead here and there. We ended up at the Rowe Sanctuary viewing blind in the afternoon, where we enjoyed watching shorebirds and spotted a Belted Kingfisher fishing. Afterward, we listened to their Crane 101 program and visited with volunteers at the Center.

The visitor centers and viewing blinds at both the Nebraska Nature and Visitor's Center (http://nebraskanature.org) and the Rowe Sanctuary (http://www.rowesanctuary.org/) were very good and even if you don't want to pay for a blind tour, they are worth a stop to gather information and view their displays. When we go back, we will be sure to check out the Cranes from Hike/Bike Bridge located at Fort Kearny State Recreational Area. A small fee to park and a 300 yard walk is all you need do to access this old railroad bridge over the braided Platte. Even though the peak viewing for 2010 has passed, there is still very good Crane viewing in early April. And the Prairie Chicken leks are just getting started!

Wild Turkeys in Rocky

Not really a hike, but definitely about local wildlife. We were on Bear Lake Road yesterday geared up to try to photograph a sunset, and instead came across a rafter of wild turkeys practically on the road.

We pulled off, quickly changed lenses and then got as many shots in as we could with the low light and nervously retreating turkeys. Susan was more patient than I was and got the best shots. Here are a few of the best of what we got (click on slideshow below to see full size web album/images).



I went back to previous Estes List emails about wild turkeys and I'm guessing this rafter is the one often seen around Giant Track mountain. We were less than two miles west of Giant Track. There were probably at least a dozen (got 10 in one photo), and one of them was the beautiful gold color previously reported.

Susan did some research and believes these could be Merriam's wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo merriami)
http://www.nwtf.org/conservation/bulletins/bulletin_04_5-20-09.pdf
or
http://tinyurl.com/yc4mljc

This PDF has a US map with ranges of other wild turkeys.

Rabbit Mountain Open Space Park hike

Susan and I are always looking for new places to hike, especially in the early spring when there's still so much snow in Rocky. We've driven by the Highway 66 turnoff for Boulder County's Rabbit Mountain Open Space Park many times, but had no idea what was back there.

It was a warm day and some parts of the trails were pretty muddy.

We hiked pretty much all of the trails in the Park and enjoyed the scenery to the east, toward Boulder, and the views of Divide, Longs/Meeker, and Indian Peaks. We had hoped to see some raptors as there are a couple of areas of the Open Space that were closed from Feb-Jul for raptor nesting, but we didn't see anything except a raven. Susan read somewhere that there is nesting bald eagle pair on Rabbit Mountain, but we didn't see a nest or any eagles.

Here are some photos we took, including a couple of panoramas I stitched together.


And here's a GPS track log/map of the hike/area.

View Rabbit Mountain Open Space Park in a larger map

Penitente Canyon Hike

After visiting the La Garita Natural Arch we decided to hike into the Penitente Canyon.

This was an easy 2 mile hike, although the trail was either very muddy or snowpacked and icy. At almost the 1 mile point we were rewarded with wonderful views of the San Luis Valley and its snowcapped peaks. The rocks here reminded us of Lumpy Ridge.

The canyon was used as a place of worship for the Brothers Penitente and you can the painted image of the Virgin Mary on one of the rock walls. This is a very popular area for bouldering and climbing.

Here are some pictures from the hike.


Here's hiking track/map.


View Penitente Canyon Hike in a larger map

La Garita Natural Arch

Another attraction in the San Luis Valley was a visit to La Garita Natural Arch.

Not really a hike, but a very steep scramble up to the arch. We were rewarded with some fantastic views!

Here are a few pictures.

Zapata Falls Hike

After our hike in Great Sand Dunes, we decided to do the nearby Zapata Falls hike.

We'd tried to do this hike a few years ago, but you have to wade in the stream coming down from the falls and we skipped it because the flow was too high and we didn't have our trekking poles with us.

It was easy this time though, as the falls and stream were completely frozen. The hike was only half a mile each way on a snowpacked trail.

Here are a few pictures from the hike (click on the slideshow to see larger images).

Great Sand Dunes Hike

While Susan and I were down in the San Luis Valley for Cranefest, we took advantage of a gorgeous sunny day to hike again in Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (GRSA).

GRSA has the tallest dunes in North America, and we bagged one of the highest ones, at about 650 feet in elevation. There was some recent snow on the dunes, but it was melting rapidly in the 40+ degree sunny weather.

Here are some pictures from the hike (click on slide show to see the larger album).

Sandhill Cranes near Monte Vista, CO

Susan and I just got back from the San Luis Valley area near Alamosa, CO. The main attraction for us was Cranefest, and the chance to see thousands of migrating sandhill cranes up close in the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge.

We did some hiking and will have more posts about this later.

Here's a selection of some of our photos (click through the embedded slideshow below to see larger versions).

Bridal Veil Falls

We decided to do another late-day hike, this time to Bridal Veil Falls, on the Cow Creek Trail, north of Lumpy Ridge. We really like the area north of Lumpy Ridge and have even hiked all the way around it (about 10 miles).

The first couple of miles the trail was variable, sometimes with no snow at all, and sometimes snow-packed and/or icy. The last third of the trail up to the Falls was mostly snow-packed and icy. We didn't use snowshoes, but Susan used her MicroSpikes with good success. Once we got to the Falls, I put mine on too, as it was very icy on the steeper sections in this area.

Bridal Veil Falls was of course frozen, with just a trickle of water running under the ice. The falls normally makes a lot of noise, but it was beautiful and quiet.

Perhaps the thing we enjoyed most on this hike was not seeing another human being on the trail the whole day! It was like we had the Park to ourselves.

This hike is described in Lisa Foster's excellent book, Rocky Mountain National Park, the Complete Hiking Guide, on page 145.

Below are previews/links to photos and a map (click either to see larger photos/map).




View Bridal Veil Falls Hike in a larger map

Hiking to "The Pool" in RMNP

The weather was warm and partly sunny today (and almost 50F), so Susan and I decided to get in a little exercise today in Rocky. We decided the relatively easy hike to "The Pool" would fit the bill.

Normally this hike, starting at the Fern Lake Trailhead, is about 3.5 miles round trip. When we headed down the road to the trailhead, we found the last .6 miles of the road was closed, so we parked and walked to the start of the hike. We got kind of a late start, leaving the car at just before 2:30pm.

We were surprised out how much snow was on the trail and although we didn't have snowshoes, we both brought our MicroSpikes. The snow was slushy and packed so Susan put hers on, but I didn't.

It was still warm enough to hike in our shirtsleeves and still partly sunny. We arrived at the pool at about 3:30pm, took a few pictures, and ate a few almonds. Then we headed back.

Got back to the car at about 4:40pm.

Total distance was almost 5.2 miles. Other details including an elevation profile are available on a map I created at Google Maps from the GPS track log.

View Hike to the Pool in RMNP in a larger map

This hike is described in Lisa Foster's book on page 37.