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.