Routt National Forest

Hello! I am home in SC now,  been catching up on chores and such.   Hope all of you are doing well I am visiting your blogs, and enjoying catching up on your posts!

When I left Garfield Co. Colorado  I headed north to start my journey home. Back along I-70 East through the Glenwood Canyon, following the Colorado River.   It's always beautiful along this stretch. Actually there are no bad views along my route. 

I turned North up highway 131 the color intensified as I drove...and I found some interesting rock formations too.  There's lots of little towns to crawl through like Toponas, Yampa, Phippsburg, some of these towns are only a few inhabitants  short of being ghost towns.  These landscapes stood out to me various color, formations, and layers of eye popping beauty. 

                               I didn't get the name of this formation, but it surely is outstanding..

                                                  This is finger rock near Yampa...

                        

This is a very unusual formation, it looks like a rock inside a rock...

This mountain is completely white! I'm trying to think of what it could be, chalk, limestone, or something else. 

It was about 140 miles to the top of this highway and the intersection with highway 40 I went East away from Steamboat Springs a popular ski area it is a typical over crowded tourist town, this is close enough for me...

And I know the route I took does not make sense, but why should it...lol 

I could have gone East at Hwy 134 but at first I thought I'd go up to Walden via Hwy 14, and take 125 South to Arapaho Wildlife Refuge...but then I decided  not to do that and stay on 40 at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass...9,524 ft. in the Routt National Forest. 

 and camped in the Meadows Campground. 

Plenty of open spaces so I chose this one, perfect because it backed up to this large open space and the dogs could run around some without bugging anyone..

yes it is almost feeding time...lol  

and you know who was all cozy in the van in his new sweater...and BOY it was SO cold that night I'd guess in the mid 30's! I was buried so deep in my covers I almost got lost!  After I walked the dogs I did a little birding before breakfast...saw the pink sided dark eyed Junco. 

and the always in motion Mountain Chickadee...

AND here is the kicker....my eye sight is suffering lately...and my memory is slipping a little too I am 64 in a just a few days and trust me it happens.  I had been searching every tree with cones that I came across on this entire stay in CO...hoping for the Red Crossbills.  SO on this super cold morning I was out with my binoculars scanning the tops of all these cone filled trees...and I saw what I thought was more Junco's with the morning sun making them look reddish....that happens right.  I snapped several shots of these "juncos" and then went about my routine of making breakfast feeding the dogs then eventually breaking camp... 

Camp sunrise

OH and here is what I thought was Juncos, turned out to be Male and Female Red Crossbills!! Lifer!

AMAZING, because I didn't know it till I looked at the  photos on my laptop!! 

So even though I had seen them I didn't know it and continued to look and look everywhere I went and was so disappointed that I never found any....LoL..so what a great early birthday surprise when I realized I had seen them!! The Bill!!

I left Routt National Forest and continued on hwy 40 South to Kremmling, Hot Sulphur Springs, and then Hwy 34  toward Granby and Grand Lake, and  the Rocky Mountain National Park.  I had visited back in the 1989  so it was time to go again.

Next Post

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Our week so far!

We've had more rain than I expected.  Here is the valley below us after a night of showers..

 Look closely and you see several greenhouses, the white structures, and some fields lined with plastic to keep weeds down?  That is the marijuana grow operation.  They have plants in different stages of development.  At night the greenhouses are all lit up. 

the crop is Hemp actually...

Here's the "kids" on the deck looking out to see what they can bark at!

We hung the hummingbird feeder and got the black chinned hummer right away, 

and Monday I saw a Rufous Hummingbird   (yippie)    

BLACK CHINNED (really is violet)

RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD #400

  So there is a rest area nearby! Lions Park Rest Area.  It's quite the happening place...there is a small pond, and lots of birds hang around...We took the dogs walking there on Sunday and I saw this Osprey in the nest with her "almost ready" young! 

She was shielding them from the hot sun with her big wings...what a mom eh?  At first I only saw one, and what a surprise my photo showed the second chick.  I should of taken more photos of the rest area...next time will do! 

and just across the River was another nest I couldn't make out if this is adult or some juvies...but look what a messy nest!!

the red stuff is shipping strapping from what I could tell...

Back at home we relaxed on the deck again Casey needed to rest...

I was out with the camera finding some isolation shots of the cool gnarly trees...like this one.  MY FAV.

And then out on the rocks... what else but a rock wren!  I've seen several young ones too...

 And this lovely  canyon wren showed up here this morning...

Since I haven't yet seen the sage wren... up till now the canyon wren is my favorite...he/she has such an aerodynamic shape.

Another "yard" visitor this morning was the Woodhouse Scrub Jay, June of 2016, they split the western scrub jay into  Woodhouse and California.  Supposedly the California has more of a turquoise vivid blue.  Very hard for me to keep up with all the changes the AOU is always implementing!  I almost feel like it's really not necessary? What do ya'll think?? 

Woodhouse scrub jay

...as promised here's a few shots of around town, its small so not a whole lot to show...

Here is  main street.  Railroad Ave.  It is a small western town...supposedly the first town in Colorado to have electricity, hydroelectric power from Rifle Falls shown in a previous post.  There's growth over toward the interstate, Walmart, and other familiar chains. Luckily it's away from the original old town area.  

1882

One of the local attractions and on the top 10 list  of things to do in Rifle is to visit the Ute Theater, its Live Entertainment! 

Also on the list of top 10 things to see is the Rifle Creek Museum 

I haven't visited either yet!  It's hard to want to be indoors when there's so much to see outdoors!  Like the picnic we had yesterday at Rifle Gap Reservoir.

sis n mom 

We saw spotted sandpiper, imm bald eagle, belted kingfisher, more mountain bluebirds, and some Canada geese, people boating, kayaking, tubing, fishing, and just hanging out! 

imm mtn bluebird

There is camping here too...they have 4 or 5 campgrounds! I should pick up a park pass, it's $7 each time you enter and if you camp that is in addition to the camp fee...the pass is $70, good for a year! I should have bought one right off the bat since we've already spent $21.  Tomorrow I am off for another adventure!! 

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

Indiana Corn and more...

Sorry I have not had a chance to visit your blogs I miss y'all I hope to catch up with you when we arrive in CO. Currently we are in Indiana we have spent 2 days visiting my mom's brother and tomorrow we head back out...My Uncle lives in a cornfield! Here is the Kids playing in the corn!

                

I enjoyed poking around in my uncle's garden...he let me pick some goodies, NOT this huge cabbage...but it was tempting..

THESE are so good I am taking some to my sis in CO...

THE corn is so fresh I picked it and we had some for dinner tonight delicious

While they reminisced I took a drive around some of the dirt roads and found a few interesting things besides Corn....

And some young blue birds learning the ropes from Mom n Dad up on the wire...

And Annie went on the wild side....

It was not a good day for photos...we had some drizzle, and heavy cloud cover most of the time since we arrived...quite chilly too!!

Tomorrow we head for Illinois, eventually Iowa, then Nebraska, then drop down into Colorado...While driving I don't get much time to stop and take photos...But we'll see what I can get along the way!!

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.