Side Trip

Every year in August my little sister and I go on a camping trip together. She and her family have property in the Colorado mountains equipped with a camper, several ATVs and lots and lots of hummingbirds. This year was our ninth trip together, and it was the best yet. We spent a whole week there, just the two of us, with great weather, good company, and fantastic food.

Jane has a fabulous view of Pikes Peak from the front deck -- what a way to enjoy most of our meals, looking at this!

One ride that we do every year is to this old trapper's cabin. This year the trail had deteriorated quite a bit, making it a little more challenging, and it was cloudy and threatening rain. Luckily the rain held off till we got back to the camper. 

 One evening we took a ride (not on the ATVs) and saw this amazing valley.










Our ultimate destination that evening was to the Tarryall Reservoir, this is the back side of it.









There was lots of wildlife this year, but we didn't get too many photos. We did manage to get pictures of this herd of antelope. There were actually 7 of them, including the baby, but this was the best picture. Other animals we saw included a herd of about two dozen elk, five deer, a coyote, a raccoon (in the daytime, not in our garbage!), and the rabbit that lives under the deck.

 

 Here's sister Jane setting up our lunch one afternoon. By lunchtime, we were happy to stand up to eat; sitting on those ATVs is lots of fun, but hard on the backside!







On one of the days we did a big trip -- a 1 1/2 hour ATV ride (each way) a 20 minute hike, then a climb down a 15 foot cliff. Of course, getting back up that cliff was a little harder than getting down, especially with my knees, but we both made it!  This is the swimming hole we were aiming for, and it was well worth the effort (although it was REALLY cold!). What an amazing place! I especially loved the cliffs, and the depressions carved in them by water. I wonder how long ago that happened?   In the back of the photo you can see the landscape after the Heyman Fire (2002).  The forest is coming back, although it's slow.

Our evening entertainment every night was watching the hummingbirds. This year there were lots of them. We think there were between 8 and 10, but it was hard to count them all. Watching them argue over who got to drink was like watching the last part of Top Gun -- the dog fight scene. I took more than 500 photos on this trip, and about 350 of them were of hummingbirds. One thing for sure, it was never boring!

Five hummingbirds in one shot!