Cherry Creek State Park; Aurora, Colorado

Good morning, my friends. It was a short drive to Aurora yesterday, and that meant we had a leisurely morning in Colorado Springs. We stayed until just before noon, and then headed north. While we waited, Mike and Smitty took their shadow selves out for a final walk.

Smitty was not at all sure this was a good idea. He convinced his shadow self to go back inside after just a few minutes.

While they were walking, I was busy working on my slow-stitching. There's still a long way to go on this, but I'm making progress.

Eventually, the kitties settled in for some tandem napping.

Sadie is especially skilled at this.

Eventually, it was time to move along. We caught a final glimpse of Garden of the Gods as we left Colorado Springs.

Just a little ways north, we passed by this formation. Inquiring of The Google, I learned that this is known as "Pulpit Rock." 

Pulpit Rock is a popular natural rock feature and namesake for the 500-acre Pulpit Rock Park located within the Austin Bluffs Open Space. Found within city limits, it is very easy to visit Pulpit Rock and ascend to the summit on a moderately difficult 4.2-mile loop hike. It is 6,621 feet in elevation above El Paso County, and can be seen while driving on Interstate 25 between Colorado Springs and Denver. 

Farther north, we could see Cathedral Rock. Cathedral Rock is a rock formation located on the U.S. Air Force Academy grounds. The formation was part of the namesake Cathedral Rock Ranch, owned by Lawrence Lehman. Lehman sold the 4650 acre ranch, including Cathedral Rock, to the U.S. Air Force, and it became the first component of the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Moving on, we saw Castle Rock. It is the namesake of the town of Castle Rock, Colorado.

So it was a slow day for barns, but there was still plenty to see geology-wise. 

We ended up entering the state park through the back entrance.

As we entered, I snapped this picture of the lake and the dam. I'm assuming they're damming Cherry Creek here.

As I got out of the truck to purchase our day use passes, I caught just the tail end of this prairie dog.

This one posed for his picture more cooperatively.

The vending machines that sell day use passes were both out of order. Signage in the park was not particularly helpful and we ended up driving the entire length of the park without ever finding the campground. A sign directed us to "Visitor Center/Campground" with an arrow to the right, but we drove back out of the park and into a busy traffic area of downtown Aurora, Colorado. This never makes us happy. 

We were able to find a place to turn around, and then drove back to the park, stopping at the visitor center and asking...essentially...WTF? A very nice young man accepted our payment for two day use passes (Colorado camping fees to not include day use fees), and directed us to the campground. We found it just about five minutes later. On our way, I snapped this picture. I believe those would be the Rocky Mountains.

This seemed like another good place for Smitty to get out for a walk. While Mike was getting us hooked up outside, I got him out for a short stroll. He nibbled at the grass for just a minute, but then he wanted to go back inside. He's a little shy about a new place until he has a chance to assess the lay of the land and the placement of any nearby woofies.

We had a very  nice evening with my friend, Carol. It was my first time meeting her husband, David. He is an electrical engineer, like Mike, and so those two had plenty to talk about. Carol and I spent the evening gabbing and catching up on the 52+ years since we've seen one another. Here's a picture of the two of us.

Carol and David are going to keep us busy today. We have a plan to drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park. Our only other trip to Rocky Mountain National Park ended when we had to run for our lives to escape rain and flooding "of biblical proportions" (the weatherman's words, not mine). It'll be good to spend a little more time there.

Carol is a fabulous wildlife photographer, and she knows the good places to go to find wildlife. As an example, she took us to a nearby trail where she'd discovered a nesting Eastern Screech Owl. I had only my cell phone with me, and this is the image I captured.

Carol had a long lens (weighing 5 lbs.) on her camera. These are the images she captured.

You might remember that I made a quilt from one of her fox images...this one:

This is the quilt I made from Carol's photo.

It was nice to see it hanging in a place of prominence above her fireplace. 

So I've charged the battery on my DSLR camera, and I'll take my longest lens. I'm hoping to get some good photos of moose and their offspring, and whatever else we might find there.

I'm planning to take a day or two off from blogging. We're going to be gone all day today, and then Mike and I are going to celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary with a nice breakfast tomorrow morning. Our next destination will be the small town of Kremmling, Colorado, and there don't seem to be any nice restaurants there. A celebratory breakfast seemed like a good alternative to dinner.

Look for me again down the road in a few days. We'll do some time-traveling, and I know I'll have plenty to tell you by then.