Castlewood

 We snuck a quick hike in at Castlewood Canyon today before the snow and cold come back tomorrow…

I felt like we needed some outside time before being stuck indoors for the next few days. (It’s not supposed to get above freezing until Friday.) 

Castlewood was absolutely stunning… 

…the blue sky, the bit of snow on the ground and decorating the peaks in the distance. Including, of course, my favorite peak: Tava. I really have a hard time with Tava being “discovered” by Zebulon Pike back in 1806, when it had already been well known and revered by native tribes for hundreds of years before Pike stumbled upon it. It already had a name too, when they named it after Pike. I much prefer it’s original name Tava (meaning Sun). 

Speaking of Tava. Here it is dominating the horizon to the south…

I love how it looks in this photo, framed by the two ponderosa pines. 

We call the smaller mountain just south/east of it (almost hidden behind one of the pines) “little sister” but it’s really Almagre  Mountain and is over 12, 000’ high! It just looks small next to stately Tava…

We had a lovely hike… it was wonderful to get outside and hike a little after the snowy January we’ve had. 

Owl hunting

 R just loves great horned owls and so we’ve spent a bit of time over the past couple of years searching for nests, and trying to get a glimpse of owls. Last year we were fortunate enough to find an active nest that was close enough that we could see the babies. It was high in a tree along the route we drive into town, and we loved watching the babies grow and eventually fledge. 

This afternoon we decided to make a trip out to Flying B Park, which is known for having great horned  owls, to look for nests. 

It was a lovely day for a walk… just a bit of snow on the ground but still warm enough to be perfect weather for walking. 

We didn’t see any owls (although I’m sure they were there) but did find quite a few nests that we’ll check from time to time to see if there is any activity. 

The park is located where there once was a small farm. The farmhouse is still there, but we’ve never been inside… we also found this little root cellar? storm shelter? built into a hill. 

There is also a lovely little pond and dock… we’re already planning some picnics here when it’s a bit warmer. 

And of course, it’s always good to spend some time with my favorite trees… 

It was a perfect way to spend a couple of hours on a mild winter day…

Mother Cabrini Shrine

After making a few trips up to Lookout Mountain over the past year or so, snd becoming familiar with the area…R decided she wanted to climb the steps up to the huge statue of Jesus at Mother Cabrini Shrine. We’d visited the shrine before but never made the trip up to the top… I knew M wouldn’t even try because of his anxiety around steps, and I didn’t feel right leaving him behind. 

Yesterday though I decided we’d just give it a try. M was unusually agreeable to going and I reassured him over and over that he didn’t have to climb the steps… he could wait in the car, climb part way and wait for us on one of the benches along the route, etc. Incredibly he didn’t argue, or insist we go somewhere else, so up we went. 

M did end up waiting below while R and I climbed to the top (300+ steps) and he did fine… The trip up was definitely worth it.. the view was SO beautiful, and it was peaceful, serene, at the top. It felt like a holy place. 

We stayed long enough to say a prayer for the family of a dear friend of ours who passed away last week then made the trip down. 

I’m pretty sure we’ll do this again.. After seeing the stairs and the photos I took from the top, M has decided he might like to try going at least part way up next time, and R definitely wants to go again. 

It was a lovely way to spend the day… 

Castlewood Cave Trail hike

 Yesterday was a beautiful warm fall day so we headed to Castlewood (of course 😉) to try and find a trail I’d seen on the trail map, but hadn’t noticed at the park. 

We ended up driving right past the trail head I was looking for without seeing it, so decided to follow a trail we’d taken before. It was an easy trail for the most part, with only a few stairs and drop offs (which make M anxious).

The fall colors are fading but still beautiful, and I kept stopping to take pictures of leaves… they were just gorgeous and shimmered in the light breeze that was blowing.

M found what looks like a fossil in this rock, can you see it?

 The trail took us in a nice little loop back to the car, but it didn’t really feel like much of a hike. 

But as we were driving back down the park road I saw the trail head I’d been looking for originally. So I parked again and we headed up the Cave Trail. (See the dark cave opening peaking out just a little above the center of the picture? That was our goal…)

The trail heads up to the cliffs on the west side of the park and is steep and involves lots of steps and climbing over rocks. It was too scary for M almost from the beginning so he waited at a picnic table just off the trail while R and I went on.

We didn’t make it all the way up to the cave (I didn’t want to leave M alone for too long), but it was a very fun, challenging hike. We climbed up and over rocks and even through rocks when the trail passed through a tunnel made by one HUGE rock leaning up against the cliff. 

I’d like to come back sometime, without Piper (who is 13 after all… it was challenging for her too!) and maybe with an extra adult for M, who can either wait with him at the picnic table,  or give him the support of two adults, instead of just me, going up the trail. 

Castlewood Hike

 Today was a beautiful fall day, with nothing on the calendar, so we decided to spend some time hiking at Castlewood. We hiked a new trail for us today, the East Canyon Trail. It heads east (surprise!), under the “bridge to nowhere”* into a preservation area where dogs are not allowed, visitors are instructed to stay strictly on the trail, and it’s closed completely from November through April (to give the wildlife a “vacation” from humans). 

It was beautiful, as Castlewood always is, and the trail was different than others we’ve hiked there… going through several different types of environments as we hiked. We walked across huge sheets of rock,  wound through forested areas, and hiked across a large expanse of prairie. The canyon walls are dotted with caves and overhangs that provided shelter to the Paleo, and later, Ute Native Americans. Fortunately there were trail markers all along the route…without those markers we never would have found our way around the loop and back. The entire loop is somewhere between 4 and 5 miles and the kids did really well. It’s probably our longest hike so far, and they both managed without any trouble. 

I took a ton of photos, here are a few…

Trail markers…

Some of the cairns seemed to defy gravity…

And a few were huge!

M’s hand coming through a hollow tree…

R cooling her feet in Cherry Creek…

And a few more just because they are so pretty.   

* Here’s the story of the “The Bridge to Nowhere”: 

By the 1930s, the new Colorado Highway 83 (Parker Road) had been paved from Denver to Franktown. Just south of Franktown was the road builders’ biggest obstacle: the 232-foot-wide Wildcat Canyon. (The canyon was renamed Castlewood Canyon in the 1920s). A graceful, arched bridge was designed and built to span the canyon – one of only six such bridges in Colorado at the time. It seemed clear sailing for the road to be completed to Colorado Springs. But plans changed. State engineers were told to abandon further work on the road. The pavement of Highway 83 came to an abrupt end at the north end of the sparkling new bridge, leading to the nickname, “The Bridge to Nowhere”.

Peace Eagle…

 …aka turkey vulture we saw while hiking at Castlewood.

Sunday Hike

 The day started off rough… Joe wasn't doing well, M was unsettled and out of sorts, and R just wanted to sit around and complain. If I could have I would have found someplace else to be for the day… but that wasn’t an option…so I decided we needed a hike. 

We haven’t hiked as much lately because it’s been so hot, and we’ve had things going on keeping us closer to home. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed Castlewood until we got there. 

It felt good to hike its trails again…

We hiked up to the ruins of the dam again, stopping a couple of times to wade in Cherry Creek. It was a perfect mix of get hot hiking/cool off in the creek. 

Doesn’t it look like this stone has letters carved in it?

I always marvel at the stones balanced here and there in the canyon… Like this huge triangle one!

We saw the first bit of fall color in the leaves as well…

We talked to another hiker who told us about a trail we’ve never tried… one with a very cool cave near the top. We’ll hike that one next.

By the time we got home Joe was feeling better, and both kids were happy and settled. 

I love it when the day turns around…