Hi Ho Hiking!

Adam and I have been taking advantage of the amazing summer weather and beautiful places in Colorado!! There is so much to see and do, so we crammed in what we could before Adam starts classes (next week!!!). Betty is coming next weekend for a visit (our first visitor!!)- get ready Betty because we are going to be doing some walking!

We went down to Colorado Springs last week to visit the Garden of the Gods, a National Natural Landmark. We packed up a picnic and did a few hikes- we even saw a group of bighorn sheep on a hilltop in the park- very neat!

Just some perspective- you can see some of the paved trails and the rocks that rise above

You can't really see, but in this image there are 3 other bighorn sheep

 We also spotted this ever-so-tiny lizard who was too tired to move!

Adam and I have also managed a few more trips to Rocky Mountain, where we've listened to a ranger program on the Mountain Pine Beetle, a beetle that is killing off some of the older trees in the park, and another talk on the black bears of Rocky Mountain National Park. Apparently there are only about 20 black bears in the whole park! We also saw one bighorn sheep (it was a young ram, between 2-3 years old so his horns aren't as impressive as the ones we saw in Garden of the Gods) and listened to a talk about them. There are about 200-300 in the park, but they hope the population grows. Definitely no shortage of elk though, as we saw more elk off of a trail when we were hiking.

Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain

A female elk that was right off the Nymph Lake trail- she was with a group of about 5 other elk!

Nymph Lake in Rocky Mountain- lots of lilypads and you can see in the background the trees that have been killed by the Mountain Pine Beetle.

A tree stump from a tree that was killed by the Mountain Pine Beetle- you can see all the holes that they've burrowed through the tree! The NPS has been cutting down dead trees along trails so they don't fall down on people 

Dream Lake- the water was so clear!

Another view of Dream Lake

Here's the bighorn ram that was across the road from us! He hung out for a while, trying to decide if he was going to come down or not...he ended up taking off after half an hour! The rangers said we were lucky to see him because it was the first sighting in 18 days!

Sheeps Lakes in the park- apparently the sheep come down here, not to drink the water or graze on the grass, but to eat the mud for its nutrients!

Adam and I are going to try and check out more of the local hiking trails. We've only been to Chautauqua trail here in Boulder a few times, but there are several in the area that we hope to visit. Here are a few photos from the Chautauqua trail- right up against the mountains! Gorgeous! Adam and I did the hike up to the Royal Arch yesterday- it was uphill and a natural stairmaster for sure! I can still feel the burn! =D

Sweeping views of Boulder below! We were definitely up high!

Our fellow hikers enjoying the views

And finally, rather than repost about our trip down to South Fork from the end of July, I'll post photos of my Week in the Life Project that I am just about finished with. I want to add a journaling page to one of the sections and then I'll be about done.