Roosevelt National Forest: Disappointment Falls from Elkhorn Creek Trailhead

 A family day out exploring northern Colorado! With beautiful weather forecast Noelle, Sierra and I headed up to the Elkhorn Creek Trailhead near Red Feather Lakes again. This time we would be doing a short hike to Disappointment Falls. We had hiked to the falls before, from the Lady Moon Trailhead and during the winter when the falls were frozen. I was excited to see what the falls look like when they are actually flowing. 

We hit the trail and immediately we saw a cow that seemed a bit stressed out. It seems she was separated from her calf who we would see a little further up the trail.

We made our way through meadows and mixed forest.

Wildflowers bloomed and the typical Red Feather Lakes rock formations were stunning as usual.

A short distance into the hike we found ourselves at the ruins of a log barn.

From the barn the trail continued west, parallel to Elkhorn Creek and passing more interesting rock formations.

Soon, we were at the falls. They are not the most impressive, but not a disappointment either.

After about 20 minutes relaxing and exploring the area near the falls, we started to make our way back to the trailhead through more beautiful scenery.

Because the hike to the falls had been so short, we opted to head to the nearby Drala Mountain Center to check out the stupa.

From there we headed into Fort Collins for lunch at Young's Vietnamese Cafe.

Roosevelt National Forest: Elkhorn Creek Trail

 This morning I drove down to Red Feather Lakes again, this time with Rosie, for a hike on the Elkhorn Creek Trail. I turned off of County Road 74E to Boy Scout Camp Road. There's a monument for the site of a Log Cabin Stage Station at this road junction and I stopped for a quick look. 

Then Rosie and I headed over to the trailhead and hit the trail.

While I thought the trail would closely follow Elkhorn Creek, in reality it climbed a ridge high above the stream. Still, I could hear rushing water, at least at the beginning of the trail. The scenery was quite nice.

We passed through a few groves of aspen and then eventually rejoined the creek. Rosie enjoyed hopping into and out of the water.

As we approached the top of the ridge meadows opened up with nice views of the high peaks to the west.

We made our way to the Granite Ridge Trail 

where we turned east and walked it a short distance to the Molly Moon Trail, making a very small loop before returning to the trailhead by retracing our steps on the Elkhorn Creek Trail.

Instead of hopping around in the water, Rosie opted to cross the creek on a bridge on the return trip.

As we approached the trailhead I noticed that I could see the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya in the distance.

It was a very pleasant hike, one that I'm a bit surprised I haven't heard more about. 

Roosevelt National Forest: Columbine and East Dowdy Lake Trails

 This morning I drove down to Red Feather Lakes to do some hiking near Mount Margaret. There's a whole system of trails out there and I wanted to explore some of them that I hadn't been on before. I had originally planned to hike Columbine and Columbine Ridge Trails but because of an unsigned trail junction I ended up getting off trail and hiking farther away from where I had intended. 

I started my hike at the Mount Margaret Trailhead and headed off into the spring woods. There were wonderful views and flowers in bloom.

I made my way over to Dowdy Lake with wonderful views of the lake and the surrounding rock formations. 

From the Dowdy Lake Trailhead, I backtracked a bit and headed east to the Frog Pond Trail. I took the Frog Pond Trail to the West Loop Trail and then headed west on the Columbine Trail. 

Unfortunately, somewhere on the Columbine Trail I took a wrong turn and ended up hiking back to Dowdy Lake on an unofficial, but heavily trafficked trail.

I retraced my steps and eventually found my way to the Columbine Trail which I hiked to its terminus. I thought it might lead to a view, but is was a nondescript location without much to write about or photograph. 

I did pass an old homestead with a pile of wood boards and parts of an old car.

As I made my way back to the trailhead via I spotted a really vibrant mountain bluebird and tool a few photos. 

It was typical Red Feather Lakes scenery as I returned to the trailhead, just as thunder started to rumble in the distance. 

Vedauwoo Natural History Site

 Today Noelle and I decided to get out of town to look for birds and hike. We opted to head down to the Vedauwoo Natural History Site, an area managed by Laramie County School District and Laramie County Community College. 

We made the drive through Cheyenne (we stopped at the Great-horned owls' nest on the edge of town), 

up Happy Jack Road to the Bunkhouse and then over past the Crystal Castle to the trailhead. 

As we hiked, we were treated to views of blooming wildflowers.

We stopped pretty frequently to look for birds.

Among the species we spotted was this Lincoln's sparrow.

and a white breasted nuthatch.

Besides birds we saw some butterflies

and deer.

The hike took us past some interesting rock formations

and a small waterfall.

The end of the hike took us along some private property with a view of some interesting old vehicles.

After returning to the car, we opted to head back to Cheyenne via a detour to check out Dome on the Plains, the old cupola from the Wyoming State Capitol building. 

There's also an old, abandoned school building there.

The inside of which is a bit creepy.