Rifle Falls State Park

 

Rifle Falls State Park is deffinatle the place to go if you want to see multiple waterfalls.  The trails are kid friendly and offers many fantastic exploring adventures.

 Various caves in all different sizes and shapes.

 

We even tried to get a picture in one of them.  The dust made it a little bit hazy.

 

The view from the top made you feel like you could see for miles.

 

 

 

The side view I took was a little creepy.  I felt like I was going to fall even with the stablewalkway. 

 

 

Standing behind the waterfall give you a true sense of the meaning of the word POWERFUL. 

 

 

If this park were a little closer to us, we would visit it often.

Devils'Head Fire Lookout: View from the Top

The lookout is a cozy little cabin with windows on all sides.

complete with a stove for colder days. 

The view is magnificient.

One of our fellow hikers was kind enough to take our picture.

We didn't stay to long,

as the stairway, and hike down would be long and tedious.

A constant stream of hikers met us both coming and going. 

It feels great to say, we manage to make it all the way up,

and back down again.

Devils Head Fire Lookout: The Hike Up

Devils Head Fire Lookout

Pike National Forest

 

Devils Head is deffinately not a trail for the faint of heart.  It was quite the climb.  All 4 girls did make it to the top. 

Shiloh had the best seat in the house, as usual.  A couple times, I wished I could take her place. 

The trail meandered through a magnificient grove of aspen,

Coupled with some splendid rock formations,

and breathtakeing views.

All these thing go a long way in taking the mind off the task at hand.  They didn't however stave off the inevitable question: "How much further?"  Soon this became the dutiful question posed to each and every decender.

One fellow hiker, assured us the end was just around the bend, sporting a bathroom, a benches to rest on.

Within minutes we glimpsed the rangers cabin,

and the lookout purched at the top of a loooong,  LOOOOONNNNNGGG stairway.  Over 200 steps I believe.   A future post will include views from the top.

Bar Lake State Park

Barr Lake State Park is another great place to see some of the  local wildlife.

I had to stop Stacie from almost stepping on this guy.    He was sunnning himself on the trail, minding his own buisness when he almost got stepped on.

The lake serves as a holding pond for irrigation water.  It gets pretty low this late in the season.

Happy owners of this moviestar [the horse]  brought him out to ride the trails.  Mr. Horse played in The legend of Zorro as one of three of the horses used to make the movie.  He was the one that jumped onto the moving train, and drank beer from a bottle.  The girls thought it was great to meet him.

Birds were pleantiful. 

I believe this is a hawk.

Beautiful Barn on Parker Road Colorado

I love this barn.  Its so beautiful with the windmills and the mountains in the background.  I took this picture a while back when we went to Castlewood Canyon. 

The picture is a little bit difficult to get from the highway.  We pulled off the road, and I hiked up the hill to take the shot. 

Check out more Barn Charm Pictures here.

Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge

Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge is a great place for flat ground hiking. 

Sometimes it can be difficult to navigate toddlers and strollers on more difficult trails. 

This place is great for the little people.

The boardwalk adds an extra measure of fascination.

Poudre Vally Canyon-After the Rain- Moose and Buck Sighting

{Joining SkyWatch - Click on over to see more beautiful skies}

Peaceful.

Smokey Haze. [We actually thought it was smoke, but it turned out to be clouds].

Young Buck.

More Clouds.

Fisherman's Cove.

Raindrops.

Magnificent Mountains.

And thanks to a tip from Arrowhead Visitor Center, we got to see a couple Moose.  This one even took a break from his lunch to pose for the camera.