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.

 

No one can ever say the prairie is boring!

What a beautiful day and place. I can't believe how many pictures I took and can't get rid of! This is suppose to be such a lonely and desolate area but it's so chock full of life that it never feels lonely! I can't stop taking pictures. You will have to bear w/ me and my enthusiasm. I really thought I wouldn't have many pictures since I took the Pronghorn Loop trail and was really just hoping to see a couple of them (the Pronghorn). Those were actually in short supply, however, the pictures were/are not. I did see about 5 Pronghorn at the very end from far away as you can tell by the quality of the pic.
The insects and butterfly's were out in droves. I almost got a picture of the butterfly w/ it's wings open but it was blurry! Bummer!
I've never seen these lizards before and saw 3 before the hike was over. Each had a turtle shaped belly that was bigger than the one before it.
And need I say anything about the flowers? As you can see they were out in abundance!!

Let's give the 'weeds' their due!
Some day I hope to come back and label all the flowers. As you can see that will be one hell of a job!

And let's not forget the grasses! They need some love too!
And the yucca which were flowering!
This hike was undertaken the weekend of the 26th of June. Again, I was slow to post!

Soapstone Prairie
Trails Used: Pronghorn Loop Starting at far Entrance Gate
Distance: 10.2 Miles
Difficulty: Easy
Moving average: 3.6 mph
Overall average: 3.2 mph
Moving Time: 2 hrs, 48 min
Stopped Time: 24 min, 19 sec
Total Ascent: 722 ft.
Maximum elevation: 6449 ft.

Soapstone Prairie

Publish Post

I went hiking at Soapstone Prairie (north of Ft. Collins, CO) this weekend. It was a great hike. I'm sure glad that I got up @ 5:40 a.m. as it turned out to be quite hot! Remember, this is a prairie and that means NO TREES or WATER! I made it to the trail head and was on my way by 7. I ended up doing a 13.2 mile hike that ended @ noon. It was long but not rigorous. I took 172 pictures (don't worry I did some major editing) so I definitely think I could have gone faster! The wild flowers were just so darn pretty! I saw a mule deer, some bunnies, quite a few cows, a couple of pronghorns, and lots of birds. I thought I would have seen more people since this place just opened but it was pretty mellow. I even talked to a couple of park rangers out for a ride on their bikes. They seemed like nice individuals. I'm looking forward to exploring more trails out there in the future.