Which Chokecherry photo do you like better?

These two photos were of a nice smelling shrub-like thing. I especially loved the bright colors of the man's running outfit in the last picture. That's why I included 2 photos that are almost duplicates of one another. Let me know which you like best:)

Mesa Trail Part III

 

 

 

Love the pattern of this first wildflower, the way it sprays out from the center. Almost considered doing a focused black and white on this one, but the color is such a shame to throw away. I encountered huge boulders along the trail. Would have liked to try to scale this one if I had my handy spidey shoes with me:)

Mesa Trail: Part Deux

 

 

 

 

The first photo is of the Doudy-Debacker-Dunn House remains. The first inhabitant of this house, Sylvester Doudy, was an original settler of the area. He built a wooden section of the house in 1858 that has since been destroyed. Next came John Debacker in 1869. He purchased the house and surrounding acreage for $500.00. I wonder if that was expensive back in the day. Now, that wouldn't even buy you a month's rent! He built this 2 story stone edition in 1874 that remains standing 'til this day. Must have done a real great job! In 1901, John Debacker retired and handed the property over to his daughter and son-in-law. They occupied the place well until John's death in the 1950's.

'Kay...history lesson over:) More beautiful unknown wildflowers (at least to me). I have to get a book for identifying flowers. I just love it too much not to. I especially love the flowering plant in my last photo. What a gorgeous subject it makes!

Mesa Trail Part I

Woke up this morning to surprisingly clear conditions. At first I was hopeful that the predicted rain had moved out of our area earlier than expected. As it turns out, this morning was just a break in the clouds. So...I did what any sane normal person would do with a beautiful morning. I got out of the house as soon as possible and drove toward the South Mesa Trail in Eldorado Canyon near Boulder Colorado. Ann and I hiked the northern end of this trail on Friday, but I've never explored the southern end.

As you can see, with all of our rain the fire danger is extremely low right now. The second photo shows a map of today's tromp. I didn't complete the whole southern end of the trail this morning, but I made it to the southern end of the Big Bluestem. That doesn't look like much distance on this map, but the whole time I was traveling north, I was going up hill. It was a lot of fun and as you shall see, I saw some beautiful wildflowers. The third picture in this post is of the start of the trail just as it passes over a small creek. Lovely!

By the way, if I weighed 15 tons, I don't think I'd want to move faster than 5mph

Mesa Trail

Friday I hiked the Mesa Trail with my good friend, Ann. We met at Chataqua around 10 a.m. and hiked between there and the water tower at NCAR. Didn't quite make it to the water tower because the temperatures dropped as we neared. We were getting chilled and decided an "almost made it" was good enough on this particular day. Probably was in the high 40's low 50's by that time with a strong wind. NCAR's Table Mesa Laboratory is the building you see on the ridge in the first picture. Saw and smelled beautiful wildflowers all along this hike. If you can help identify, please feel free. I need to invest in a wildflower book for this area.

P.S. looked it up. The 2nd to last photo is of Praire Goldbanner and the last photo is of a Western Wallflower.