Flowers Trail Hike (Pingree Park)

Took a short hike this weekend.  Next time we won't have anything we need to be back home for because we didn't tire the kids out.  They were still picking at each other later in the day.  They definitely needed to work harder.  

View of one of the beaver ponds.   We didn't get to see any beavers though.

Lunch spot:

We passed some raspberry bushes right in the middle of the trail on the way out that had luscious looking berries.  I only had one...thought the animals in the woods might appreciate them more than I.

The flowers were out in abundance but beginning the decline to fall.  

Aster

Campanula or 'Bells' as my daughter likes to call them

Aster/Yarrow

Leather Flower

 Aster

Yarrow

Potentilla

Geranium

Rose Hips

 Waiting for 'the girls':

Hike: Flowers Trail

Trails Used:  Flowers Trail to Beaver Park (up Old Flowers Road from Pingree Park exit)

Distance: 4.00 miles

Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 1.8 mph
Overall Time: 2 hrs, 10 min
Total Ascent: 893 ft.

Chicken corners, at long last!

 Daddy had spent a lot of time telling the kids about 'Chicken Corners' so they were very excited the day we set out to go there.   We ended up spending about 5 hours in the car that day but it was all right since it was such a pretty ride.  We started low and climbed up to Hurrah Pass.

 

 

 

 Views of the Potash Ponds.

 

 Coming down the other side of Hurrah Pass.

 

 Great views of the Colorado River:

 

 The chicken dance at chicken corners:

 

The real chicken corners:

 It was necessary to go very slow and carefully so  as to not fall off the cliff or scrape up your vehicle on the rock.

  

I promise that's not our paint on that rock!

 

 A nice spot for lunch until the wind started gusting!

 Notice that only one person goes around the rock cliff.  We decided this was the real chicken corners and that Daddy lost his man card that day!  :)

Eye of the Whale Arch

 We'd originally planned to go down the Salt Valley 4x4 road to see Tower Arch and Marching Men but the day we went it was closed.  We headed out to Willow Flats drive then to see Eye of the Whale Arch.  It was a pretty easy drive in two high clearance vehicles.  I'm not sure a sedan or minivan would have fared well.  We were able to walk right up to the arch and even around it.  We were probably the only visitor's to make it out that way.

As lame as the pictures look we still had fun driving around in our manly vehicles.  It was nice to see my truck being used as it should be.

A visit to the High Park Fire burn area

 

We got invited up to some peoples cabin this weekend that they had built by hand.  It was located up Rist Canyon down Old Flowers Road.  We hadn't been in this area since the big fire this summer so it was interesting to see how the flames moved and left some areas virtually untouched.  Luckily, their cabin was slurried otherwise it would no longer be here.  

 

We took a nice walk through the surrounding meadow (recovered) and the burnt forest area (this will take a long time to recover).  The trees were blistered and spotted and cast cool shadows on the forest floor.

 

The jeep even got to do some 'real' jeep work.  The picture doesn't look like much but the kid's were having a blast in the back seat!