Fort Collins Area Hiking
For about the last week, I’ve been in the Fort Collins, CO area for my niece’s wedding. That required about 6 hours total, but if I’m going all that way, I want to make it into a mini-vacation.
During the trip, I saw elk, bear, bear cub, rattle snake, rabbits, HUGE grasshoppers, millions of grasshoppers, gray squirrels, ground squirrels, and a few fish. A few interesting photos are below.
The Hikes
- Big South
- Cameron Pass – GPS Track
- Rocky Mtn National Park Glacier Gorge Area – Alberta Falls, Mills Lake, Jewel Lake … – GPS Track
- Rocky Mtn National Park Bear Lake (yawn)
- Devin’s Backbone – GPS Track
- Bobcat Ridge Nature Area – GPS Track
Enjoyed the hikes. Most were between 4 and 8 miles with different difficulty levels. I’m glad that I’d significantly increased the difficulty of my local hikes, but nothing can prepare you for 7,500-10,500 feet of altitude. At least the temperatures and humidity were very low compared to home. Be certain to click on the GPS tracks for each hike above. My velcro-GPS Receiver-to-Hat connector appears to work flawlessly. Ok, perhaps not, but they are definitely better than what I’ve captured without the GPS on my head.
Grasshoppers!
So here’s a macro image of a 2 inch grasshopper. According to Wikipedia, grasshoppers are called Locust when they swarm.
Enjoy. On most monitors, this photo is displayed life sized. Imagine walking down a path and having 50+ of these jump every few feet. That’s how it is at the Bobcat Ridge Nature Area just west of Loveland, CO.
Bear!
Photo by Mike M.
This bear was in the tree just a few seconds earlier with a cub. I saw the bears in the tree, but wasn’t there for this part. Our penthouse suite was less than 50 feet from this location. I understand that when a bear craps from a tree, it does make a sound as it hits the ground.
Sadly, I was too slow to capture either the elk walking across a 5 lane road (US-34) outside Estes Park or the rattlesnake on Devil’s Backbone. Sorry.
Picturesque Mountain Lakes
I used to believe that all those Picturesque Mountain Lake photos were really, really hard to get. I took about 30 on a hike near Mills Lake and Jewel Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Here’s just one that I took.
Super Sized Dandelions
Here’s a flower that looks like a dandelion, but is about 3 inches in diameter. HUGE. The rest of the plant doesn’t look like any dandelion that I’ve ever seen. What is it?
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