sapblatt
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- Oct 22, 2004
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While I heard the wind shipping all night in my motel room I was glad I had made a lot of alternative plans if I had a bad weather day in the mountains. Today the valley had 40-60 mph winds and the peaks had 60-90 mph winds. In fact it was so bad that the Park Service closed Trail Ridge Road today – glad I drove it yesterday. So my plan for the day was a long drive to northeast Colorado to visit the Pawnee Buttes National Grassland.
The early morning drive on US 34 was very windy – the few pictures I took were hard to stand still for – that would continue all day. Route 34 follows the canyon of the Big Thompson River – it is very pretty – I was happy no rocks fell while I was driving. Eventually made it to I-25 and CO 14 and headed thru Ault on my way to the nearly abandoned town of Keona. Along the county road I was treated to the view of some antelopes – very cool – I got a few long range pics – they are very skittish. The next 45 minutes or so were on windswept dirt roads surrounded with grass and succulents and thousands of cows!
Eventually I made it to the spectacular Buttes. When I got out of my car I almost lost the door and made the make of relieving myself in 60 mph winds – I thought they were at my back – they were in every direction – live and never learn. The Buttes are truly amazing – from what I have read they are what is left of how the land looked thousands, if not millions of years ago. The surrounding area has eroded away and the Buttes are what remains. I took a ton of pics here, but because of the winds, and the fact that they look better with perspective I chose not to hike the easy 1.5 miles to be right next to them – they are not to be climbed. The next 90 minutes wound me all over the place as I was trying to work my way into Wyoming. Eventually, with no signs and only using my compass and a highway map at unmarked intersections I came out at US 85 about 20 miles south of Cheyenne, WY. I spent the next couple of hours driving into Wyoming and into Nebraska – no real reason – just to say I was there. See – I still have “list” tendencies!
I made my way back to Estes Park around 2pm and found a place that will let me shower (before my red eye flight home) tomorrow and another place where I can print my boarding pass. I drove down the most popular road in the park – Bear Lake Road. This road is lined with trailheads to a variety of lakes, gorges, waterfalls and mountain tops. I plan to hike to a number of these areas tomorrow. By the time I got to the lot around 3pm I was so tired I took a 40 minute nap. It was snowing pretty hard so I decided to drive back. You will see in the pictures that I saw a family of elk at the start of the road – when coming back I managed to get a few pics of a coyote that was checking out the same area.
The next spot was to head down CO 7 to another area – Lily Lake. This is another popular area that even has a handicap accessible trail around the hike. I can just imagine what quick one-liner LarryD is coming up with right now! I took the ridge route, which is real easy – it puts you above the north shore of the lake. It is overrun with pikas – sort of a chipmunk/squirrel combo. They are obviously used to stupid humans who feed them. One time when I got up after a break I realized there was one about one foot behind me! I did get some pictures of a rabbit that I saw before it saw me. I walked around the south side in a wind swept snowstorm with some sunshine too! The views two Longs Peak and the Twin Sisters is great from here.
After dinner I chose to go back to where I went last evening – near Sheep’s Lake. This area is just about guaranteed wildlife viewing. I saw a large herd of elk, but was treated to something very special – four elk fawns (I am assuming fawn is the correct term?) I was able to get some real nice shots – one of them was very curious about me and kept looking my way – or very scared. They did not flee – they hung around for quite awhile. I went a bit further down the road where someone was watching a coyote gnaw on an elk skull thru a spotting scope. I managed a few nice shots of the sun setting between Sundance Mountain and Chaquita Mountain.
PICTURES – not overly edited, sorted, etc. – kind of doing this all on the fly late at night. Scenery shots are a lot better than the wildlife shots – digital zoom is a so-so compromise sometimes – I had better luck when I used my “sport/action” setting as it fires the shutter quicker. The plants were tough today – very windy!
ROUTE 34 AM – early morning
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PAWNEE BUTTES NATIONAL GRASSLANDS
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN2O¬ag=1
BEAR LAKE ROAD
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LILY LAKE AREA
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN3K¬ag=1
SHEEP’S LAKE PM
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN3o¬ag=1
The early morning drive on US 34 was very windy – the few pictures I took were hard to stand still for – that would continue all day. Route 34 follows the canyon of the Big Thompson River – it is very pretty – I was happy no rocks fell while I was driving. Eventually made it to I-25 and CO 14 and headed thru Ault on my way to the nearly abandoned town of Keona. Along the county road I was treated to the view of some antelopes – very cool – I got a few long range pics – they are very skittish. The next 45 minutes or so were on windswept dirt roads surrounded with grass and succulents and thousands of cows!
Eventually I made it to the spectacular Buttes. When I got out of my car I almost lost the door and made the make of relieving myself in 60 mph winds – I thought they were at my back – they were in every direction – live and never learn. The Buttes are truly amazing – from what I have read they are what is left of how the land looked thousands, if not millions of years ago. The surrounding area has eroded away and the Buttes are what remains. I took a ton of pics here, but because of the winds, and the fact that they look better with perspective I chose not to hike the easy 1.5 miles to be right next to them – they are not to be climbed. The next 90 minutes wound me all over the place as I was trying to work my way into Wyoming. Eventually, with no signs and only using my compass and a highway map at unmarked intersections I came out at US 85 about 20 miles south of Cheyenne, WY. I spent the next couple of hours driving into Wyoming and into Nebraska – no real reason – just to say I was there. See – I still have “list” tendencies!
I made my way back to Estes Park around 2pm and found a place that will let me shower (before my red eye flight home) tomorrow and another place where I can print my boarding pass. I drove down the most popular road in the park – Bear Lake Road. This road is lined with trailheads to a variety of lakes, gorges, waterfalls and mountain tops. I plan to hike to a number of these areas tomorrow. By the time I got to the lot around 3pm I was so tired I took a 40 minute nap. It was snowing pretty hard so I decided to drive back. You will see in the pictures that I saw a family of elk at the start of the road – when coming back I managed to get a few pics of a coyote that was checking out the same area.
The next spot was to head down CO 7 to another area – Lily Lake. This is another popular area that even has a handicap accessible trail around the hike. I can just imagine what quick one-liner LarryD is coming up with right now! I took the ridge route, which is real easy – it puts you above the north shore of the lake. It is overrun with pikas – sort of a chipmunk/squirrel combo. They are obviously used to stupid humans who feed them. One time when I got up after a break I realized there was one about one foot behind me! I did get some pictures of a rabbit that I saw before it saw me. I walked around the south side in a wind swept snowstorm with some sunshine too! The views two Longs Peak and the Twin Sisters is great from here.
After dinner I chose to go back to where I went last evening – near Sheep’s Lake. This area is just about guaranteed wildlife viewing. I saw a large herd of elk, but was treated to something very special – four elk fawns (I am assuming fawn is the correct term?) I was able to get some real nice shots – one of them was very curious about me and kept looking my way – or very scared. They did not flee – they hung around for quite awhile. I went a bit further down the road where someone was watching a coyote gnaw on an elk skull thru a spotting scope. I managed a few nice shots of the sun setting between Sundance Mountain and Chaquita Mountain.
PICTURES – not overly edited, sorted, etc. – kind of doing this all on the fly late at night. Scenery shots are a lot better than the wildlife shots – digital zoom is a so-so compromise sometimes – I had better luck when I used my “sport/action” setting as it fires the shutter quicker. The plants were tough today – very windy!
ROUTE 34 AM – early morning
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN1g¬ag=1
PAWNEE BUTTES NATIONAL GRASSLANDS
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN2O¬ag=1
BEAR LAKE ROAD
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN2s¬ag=1
LILY LAKE AREA
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN3K¬ag=1
SHEEP’S LAKE PM
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN3o¬ag=1
