We have access to the Colorado Trail from Tiger Run. It’s a five hundred mile trail through the mountains from Denver to Durango. Haven’t quite covered the entire thing, but we have made lunchtime walks in both directions.
The Colorado forests are changing. The pine beetle is giving us reason to learn to admire not only shades of green, but also shades of brown. It’s like going to Yellowstone. The fires changed Yellowstone forever by our standards. But the standards of our lifetime and our memories are just a blip in geologic time. The blackened Yellowstone forests still stand, but they are gradually coming down. The seedlings on the forest floor are asserting themselves and they will someday be as tall as the remaining snags.
The Colorado forests will look like a forest fire has gone through. It will be a slower oxidation that takes several years to complete. We will get to watch part of the recovery process as well. It will be a long cycle; not like the annual change of seasons. We will only get to see part of it, but then nobody gets to see everything do they?
Mountain weather. Highs mostly in the sixties. Lows in the forties. Blue sky in the mornings. Fifty degrees, calm, and sunny feels warm. Intermittent showers in the afternoon. Lush undergrowth. Flowers everywhere.
Tiny flocks of pine siskins on the feeder. Rufous and broad tailed hummingbirds. White crowned sparrows. Mountain chickadees. Swarms of violet green swallows overhead. Robins on the lawns. An American dipper works his way up and down the stream behind our site. There are trout in the stream.
