Monday, January 28, 2013

Rocky Mountain Arsenal

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge was an extremely pleasant surprise in such an urban area. Great trails for hiking abound, as do animals. Tread lightly, and don't forget the camera.


Find the bison!





Patterns in a frozen lake.



This guy was down one antler. Still a beautiful creature, though.




And the whole thing was free, which makes it even better. I'm still surprised at how few people were there on a Saturday so close to Denver on a warm-for-winter day. We'll definitely be back, time and time again, and I can't wait to discover the different animals and sights in each season.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Boulder adventures

Well here we are exploring Boulder already! It still feels a bit like an extended vacation, mostly because I'm not working. But it was great to get in a hike, even if it was short-lived (thanks, lack of oxygen. It makes a bigger difference than you think).

So we visited a park that boasts tons of trails, and it seemed pretty popular, so we figured it would be a good place to start seeing the beautiful locales around our new home. There was a bit of snow, but it was packed down and easy to hike on. These trails were certainly popular on Sunday morning, as we had to fight for a parking space. Did I mention it's free? BECAUSE IT'S FREE!

Here's a photo early in the hike looking back over the town of Boulder:


And here's a photo of Boulder's famous Flatirons — it was an incredibly warm and sunny day:




Don't mind the rock climbers — they were hiking up to, I assume, take advantage of the Flatirons' well-known rock climbing.