Rabbit Mountain Open Space

 

 Canada Thistle

Took the family down to Longmont today and hiked Rabbit Mountain Open Space.  We did not see any rabbits. We did see wildflowers,

Prickly pear cactus

 

 

Yucca

 
Golden Aster

 

bugs,

  

and had great views.

 

This hike is out in the open with very few trees so it's good to start early, go in the spring or fall, or go on cooler days in the summer.  There are a couple of different trails you can take of varying lengths.  We took the Eagle Wind Loop and were hoping to make it the whole way.  We could have if we didn't have prior commitments for lunch or if the kids weren't with us.  The views of the surrounding mountains are spectacular.  The Eagle Wind Loop trail has trees and  nice rocks to sit on or climb.

Hike: Rabbit Mountain Open Space

Trails Used: Eagle Wind Loop Trail

Distance: 2.92 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 1.6 mph
Overall Time: 1 hrs, 47 min
Total Ascent: 501 ft.

 

Horsetooth Mountain Park

I had a nice hike at Horsetooth Mountain Park today.  It wasn't too crowded when I started (8:30 am...a little later than I thought I would get going but, hey, it's a holiday weekend, right?) but by the time I finished (11:30 am) the parking lot was packed and people were driving in circles to get find any available space.

I saw two deer right off the bat around Horsetooth Falls.  The falls weren't anything special today just a little bit of dripping water.  I did see lots of wildflowers.  (Lupine)

 
Alpine Wallflower

Yellow Salsify

Sprawling Daisy

 Butter and Eggs

 

Sulpher Flower

Hound's Tongue

Penstemon

 

Prickly Pear Cactus

Hike: Horsetooth Mountain Park

Trails Used: Horsetooth Falls to Spring Creek to Westridge to Rock and down to Parkiung
Distance: 7.36 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 2.7 mph
Overall Time: 2 hrs, 41 min
Total Ascent: 2222 ft.

Invasion of the animals!

 It's spring and boy can you tell.  The rabbits have been humping, the geese have been humping, the birds have been humping! The wildlife in my backyard is going crazy!

Right now the baby bunnies are my friend.  They are cute when they 'sun' themselves in front of their 'home' (under my deck).

 

They are not so cute when they eat all my grass and it can't grow, when I have to put fences around my flowers (I'm not tolerant of plants that can't survive on their own!) to let them survive, and when I have to get dead bodies out of my window wells after they've plummeted to their death.  So far this season has been fine, only 3 babies, no deaths.

 I can't see you.  Really, I can't when you flatten your ears to your head and duck!  Those bulging eyes are VERY hard to see.

They're coming to get me!!!

 

These geese are about a half mile from us at a business park.  We've taken to biking up there a couple of days a week to check on their progress.  As you can tell by the above photo, a ton of people must be feeding them.

These geese are the latest round of babies (in the last 2 days) to hatch.

 

What they are doing by the front door to the office building is anyone's best guess!  The parents were honking up a storm too!  Like we humans had any right to enter or leave the building while they were taking their nap!  Too funny.  I can't wait to see if they are going to have more or not!

Later in the evening they had moved to this much more natural spot. (very sarcastic!)  They are in the concrete planter...I'd be interested to know how they got the two babies up there.

My 1st Batch of Fresh Strawberries!

I actually covered them this year so the bunnies and the birds can't get them.  We've had about 10 total. I need to move them to a better place but this will have to do for now.  I'm dying to make homemade strawberry ice cream but I'm going to have to up the production by about 100!

 

 

Fantastic Friday!

It was warm and breezy this afternoon.  I was inspired to make a 'new' drink to go with the beginning of the summertime season (yeah, yeah...I know it's still over a month away, officially) but I wanted to have a drink and I wanted it to be different!  I'd bought some grapefruit from Sprouts a couple of days ago and we had some Breckenridge Vodka that we won in a tennis tournament (a year ago) that had never been opened (shame on us).   Seems to me that it was meant to be...a Greyhound night!  I juiced my grapefruit (2), a lime, zested the lime, added four shots of Vodka and let sit for 2 hours.  When I was finally ready for happy hour I filled a glass 2/3 full and topped it off with a little bit of Diet 7-Up (when having more than one drink one must watch the waistline!).  Perfection if I don't say so myself!

Soapstone Natural Area

Had a great sunny hike after a couple of days of dreary, colder weather.  We saw lots of pronghorn and deer (too many to count).  The flowers were just starting to come out.  They weren't as exciting as in the past but I usually don't come out here until June.  We did get a little 'lost' (a relative term since I knew my way back and had a GPS) but we definitely were off the trail for a while!  Either way we had a great hike through the prairie.

Good thing the deer have white butts or we wouldn't have seen half of them!

 

 The picture quality is awful but I couldn't resist since all 3 heads were looking at us.  This is when I wish I had my old Canon w/ the super zoom.

Hike: Soapstone Natural Area 

Trails Used: Mahogany to Pronghorn Loop to Sandwash Trail, got lost a bit, to Towhee Loop Trail

Distance: 10.03 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 3.1 mph
Overall Time: 3 hrs, 12 min
Total Ascent: 1354 ft.

 

Riverbend Ponds Natural Area

 What a great place!  There are quite a few different ponds and a rather lengthy trail.  I didn't realize that we would have so much to explore!

 

We were able to see baby geese,

 

 

snakes,

 

 

 fish,
 turtles,

 

 and birds (a lot of red wing black birds) throughout this hike.

 

 

We hiked on boardwalks,

 

 played on logs, played with sticks and grasses in the water,

 

 threw rocks in the ponds and river, watched people canoe and fish.
 We were able to walk along the Poudre River for awhile and saw red seaweed!

 

There is so much to do and we even hiked quite a bit (3.5 miles)!  I would highly recommend this for families.

  The roses had just come out to bloom:

 

 The Donkeytail Spurge was pretty:

Hike: Riverbend Pond's Natural Area

Trails Used:

Distance: 3.53 miles
Difficulty: Easy for adults, Moderate for children (can get hot out there so start early)
Overall average: 1.2 mph
Overall Time: 2 hrs, 52 min
Total Ascent: 462 ft.