We went into Rocky Mountain park today and hiked up the Colorado river to Lulu City. At the bottom on this sign is La Poudre Pass- over that takes you down the Poudre river, down Big South, where we were camped and hiked a couple weeks ago. The source of the Poudre River is in the park. The same river runs though Fort Collins. It was a cool cloudy thundery day.
John hiking in the ‘tree tunnel’ which you get below tree line in Colorado. Here he is beside the Colorado River, we are very close to the source. We have boated many segments of this river farther down, it is cool to see it near the source. In the 30 years I lived in Colorado I spent every weekend when it was not ski season hiking and backpacking into this country. Traveling around the country to see cool new things I can forget how pretty it is here.
Rainy, cloudy and foggy. Thunder echoed up and down the canyon as we hiked. Remnants of a a log cabin at the site of the Shipler mine.
John standing out in the rain and hail. Hail on the ground for hours after the storm, I think it was cold. It is nice to be up here in the rain. There are no other people and it smells wonderful and the trees have sparkly drops of water on the needles.
Lulu city site. 1879-1884. Population 200. There was nothing left of the site but a notched log here and there from the old cabins and a nice green meadow. It was on the Colorado River pictured here. The source of the Colorado is a few miles up in the mountains in the background. We had lunch here.
Silt filled water coming down from the mountains above us, tributaries of the Colorado river. We crossed at least a dozen of them. All this water heads down in the river toward Mexico. Not much makes it, it is used up in the western states on the way by. Old mining artifact.
The Colorado River valley is lush green meadows. John with his feet in another tributary of the Colorado.
On the way back there was a traffic jam, familiar to anyone who has traveled in parks in this area-animals. There were 5 bull elk. Magnificent animals. Three with huge racks and two spikes. Then the next jam was a moose by the river. A man beside me was telling his son to look at the big animal, but he didn’t know what is was. I told him moose. A woman in a car in the same spot asked us if the elk we had just past were elk or moose. I guess I lived here long enough and have seen so many that I take them for granted. I guess there are people who have never seen them before.
Downtown Grand Lake has wooden sidewalks. We stopped to buy groceries. Sunset peeked up under the clouds tonight.
Hawkweed , purple flowers, rams horn(see the horn?), monicius, paint brush, hail, columbines and lichen.
Pyrolia, white flowers, rams horn, lousewort.
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