Colorado (July, 2022)

Our greeting to the Colorado National Monument

Looking out on Monument Canyon of Colorado National Monument

Balancing Rocks formation

Formation called “triple arch” but it should be called “quadruple arch”

Looking straight down into the arches

Monument Canyon with an arch hiding

Unnamed arch

Magnificent Monument Canyon

Otto’s Bathtub, named for John Otto, credited with creating Colorado National Monument

Otto’s Bathtub Arch

Heading down from Upper Monument Canyon Trailhead

An unnamed arch we came across

Does this look like “The Scream”?

An unusual pillar with debris on top

Looking up at the “coke ovens”

Pretty color variations in an imposing sheer

“Kissing Couple”

An interesting rock

Independence Monument

Nice example of desert varnish, made up mostly of manganese and iron and takes thousands of years to form

On to the interior of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains – Grottos Trailhead in the White River National Forest

River which creates the waterfalls, could not find what the name of the river is

The Grotto, formed by glacial melting – we did not climb down into the ice caves, but others said there was ice

Magnificent cascade waterfalls

Mountain penstemon

First of many fully blooming wildflower fields

Trailhead to Lilypad Lake, such interesting flowers along the way

Fireweed, called that because seeds need to go through fire in order to germinate

Northern Bedstraw, a favorite of bears waking up from hibernation

Small lake overfilled with lilypads

Lilypad Lake

A beautiful little lake with an amazing reflection

Arrowleaf ragwort with a police car moth

What could possibly be causing such a traffic tie-up on a back Colorado road?

A most unlikely reason, at least to an urbanite!

Finally made it to Cataract Loop Trail

Some of the namesake cataracts

Colorful blooming wildflowers made this trail spectacular.

White mariposa lily – someone on the trail called it a mountain lily. Never saw anything like it before.

Colorado blue columbine – columbine always a favorite of mine, colors made it all the better.

Pollinators as plentiful as the blooms!

Yellow salsify, also called western goat’s beard

Great spangled fritillary on asters

Was warned that if you hike to the waterfall the view is blocked by forest

Probably would have been amazing if you could get to them

Springwater dancing damselfly

Great spangled fritillary on a mountain sunflower

A clouded sulphur

Bumblebee on mountain pentsemon

A cute little guy having his lunch

The roadblock as we were trying to leave the area

Spruce Creek of Spruce Creek Trail which leads to Continental Falls and Mohawk Lakes, though we did not make it to the lakes

Mirror Lake was a wonderful surprise along the way; we had not heard anything about it before hand!

This trail, too, was vibrant with wildflowers. These giant red Indian paintbrush are quite impressive.

This trail was under construction and very difficult to hike and difficult to follow. We knew we were in the right place when we found the remnants of the old mining camp.

Lower Continental Falls, worth the hike

More of lower falls, never did find upper falls; neither did anyone else we saw on the hike

Travelling through Nebraska on our way home, we came across an original Pony Express station.

This post was originally elsewhere and was reconstructed on this site in Gothenburg. It had a second story that was in such poor condition it could not be saved.

A little known fact, the Pony Express lasted only 18 months, April 1860 to October 1861.