Other Misc Birds Today (3 of 3)

 

All photos taken February 17, 2015

 

Carolina Wren

 

 

Downy Woodpecker

 

Junco

 

Another Junco

Nuthatch



Pine Siskin

Purple Finch

Mount Evans, Colorado -- Highest Paved Road in North America

I really enjoyed the road trip with Allen up to the top of Mount Evans, Colorado, yesterday.

 

Mt. Evans is one of Colorado's "Fourteeners", so-called because the summit is above 14,000 feet above mean sea level.   It is \west of Golden, south of the town of Idaho Springs.  A paved road leads through beautiful scenery, from I-70 all the way up to the summit.  It is a highly-recommended half-day trip.

 

Echo Lake, about halfway up the road.

 Echo lake from above.

The treeline is reached about 12, 500 feet.  The road is paved, but not in the best condition, is extremely narrow, winding, and completely without guardrails.  Often, there is a steep cliff right at the edge.

There are numerous little mammals living way up here.

The air is very thin, and being a low-lander, I can't walk very far without getting winded.  This was taken at a very short trail Allen found after we parked at Summit Lake, around 13,800 feet ASL.

 Summit lake still was mostly covered in ice, even at the end of June.

 A gorgeous mountain bluebird at Summit Lake.

The Camry didn't miss a stroke, and ran smooth as silk, even in the thin air.  We reached the top, 20 miles and about an hour from the entrance station, and found this view.  This is the view looking south.

 Looking west.

These ruins are the remains of a hospitality house at the summit which was destroyed by a propane explosion around the year 1943.  This is looking east towards Denver.  They claim you can see Nebraska on a clear day, but I don't believe it, since I've never seen any peak (or any trace, even) of the Front Range from Nebraska.

NCAR - Boulder

Had a visit with Allen to the National Center for Atmospheric Research.  The building, designed by the famed architect I.M. Pei (the same architect who designed the John Kennedy Library and the famous pyramid at the Louvre museum in Paris), sits atop Table Mesa just southwest of Boulder, Colorado.

 

 

In front of the building, the sidewalk was built around a pine tree.  Sadly, the pine tree is dead, but an artist has used the stump to create a nice wooden statue.

The view of boulder is nice from the top of Table Mesa. 

The mesa also offers a nice view of the flatirons.

 The center has a series of nature trails through the beautiful meadows and open woods surrounding the mesa.

Nice prickly-pears were blooming along the nature path.

Summer Rains...

We saw it coming...

and going...

and although the rain only lasted about 60 seconds, the rainbow stayed around for about 15 minutes.

Incredible Edibles...

While Debbie is in Germany eating chocolate, I'm here at home eating her garden!  I had a yummy dinner tonight, picked just a couple of minutes before eating!

Hiking Buddy: Elder Searle

I spent a good bit of Monday showing my good friend Elder Bob Searle (from Utah) some of my favorite trails in the Shenandoah National Park.  We first drove out past Grottoes and hiked up the Madison Run Fire Road to the Furnace Mountain Trail.  We forded Madison Run and went up the Furnace Mountain Trail a ways before coming back down.  Next we drove out past Crimora and hiked the RipRap Trail, going out about 2 miles, just past the intersection with the Wildcat Ridge Trail.  We crossed two fords on this trail, which is one of my favorites.  We turned back before getting to the swimming hole.

The rhododendrons are pretty much bloomed out by this time of year, and the mountain laurel is not yet at its peak.  But we found some pretty flowers nevertheless.

After lunch, we drove up to the Skyline Drive, and hiked along the Appalachian Trail up to Blackrock Summit.

Left around 10:30 a.m., got home around 6 pm, and after getting cleaned up, we had dinner with our wives at the Depot in Staunton.  Magnificent day!