The Boulder Experience

 

…includes tow planes and sailplanes overhead.

 

 

Right overhead.

 

 

 

Alex

 

The 2014 gymnastics practice collection:

 

Alex - high bar

 

Alex - parallel bars

 

Alex - tumbling

 

Alex - Floor

 

 

I've been thinking

 

…about juniper trees.

 

Not all junipers are the same.  There are three different kinds of junipers in Colorado:  Rocky Mountain Juniper, One-seed Juniper, and Utah Juniper.  In our camp, it appears that we have two out of the three junipers right here.

 

One with berries

 

…and one without.

 

The range map for Utah Juniper puts them on the western slope, on the other side of the state from us.  That makes a case for these two being One-seed Juniper and Rocky Mountain Juniper.

 

But then I read that junipers are dioecious.  Plants are either male or female.  Only the females have berries.  One of these has berries.  One doesn’t

 

I don’t know what I’m looking at yet.  More research is needed.

 

It's not Devil's Tower

 

…but I did make the hike out to Pawnee Buttes.

 

 

The tops of the buttes represent where the surface of the prairie used to be.  The land surrounding the buttes has eroded away exposing fossil bearing rocks 100 million years older than the soil on top.

 

 

The trail there leads over some interesting terrain.

 

 

…and past some interesting characters.

 

We heard the dragon-breath huffing

 

…of the burner in a low flying balloon approaching in the morning silence.

 

We looked up to find a normal looking balloon, except that it didn’t have a big wicker basket underneath; it only had a person.

 

Who knew you could just hang from a hot air balloon?

 

Alex

 

Learning reverse giants.

 

Alex - high bar

 

 

Along the way

 

Colorado wildflowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the Gray Jay

 

 

A cheery high country camp robber.

 

Always available for a handout.

 

 

 

American Dipper

 

A pretty cool bird.

 

He gets in the stream

 

 

..ducks under the water

 

…and feeds off the bottom.

 

 

Sometimes he submerges himself all the way to feed along the stream bottom!

 

 

 

 

The Colorado High Country

 

It’s a good place to be in the fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Car trip!

 

A drive north to Bill and Marge’s farm in Wheatland Wyoming.

 

Map to Wheatland

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of free-roaming Guineas terrorized Henry.

He thought he was going to chase them until they ran at him screaming.  At that point Henry decided he was a City Dog and needed to get back in the car.

 

We’ve known Bill and Marge since Judy was a teenager.  They’re the first friends we made when we came to Colorado in 1968.

 

They were the first people to come see Becky when she was born.  …and today we got to include them in their first “selfie”.