Golden Gate Canyon State Park

Golden Gate Canyon State Park is one of the 42 Colorado State Parks and is located in Gilpin and Jefferson counties, around 30 miles west of Denver. This 11,998 acre Front Range Park has 36 miles of hiking trails-- Horses and bicycles are allowed on 22 miles of those trails. It includes facilities such as a visitor center, over 100 campsites, 5 furnished and heated cabins for rent, 2 yurts, and the upscale 4 bedrooms Harmsen Guest Ranch, stocked fishing ponds, and over 100 picnic sites. (All photos, and photo collages, in this post, will enlarge for easier viewing if clicked on)

The Golden Gate Canyon Visitor Center is open daily, year-round. Outside is a placard that tells about the wildlife that is in the area and gives hiking tips.

We headed up to the Panoramic Point Scenic Overlook, where we saw a view of 100 miles of the Rocky Mountains Continental Divide in the distance! (Click on to enlarge!)

Some close-ups of the mountains we saw along our 100-mile view.

The elevation at Panoramic Point is approximately 9,400 feet.  Here, the picnic table area was under a shady canopy of trees.

This little chipmunk was waiting for us to leave so he could search under the table for crumbs.

After eating our picnic lunch we headed out on the 2.3 miles round trip Raccoon Loop Trail.  This trail passes through Golden Gate Canyon's upper-montane and lower subalpine forests.  Along the trail, we saw lodgepole pine trees, Engelmann spruce, blue spruce, white fir and aspen trees. Do you spot my husband standing next to a giant lodgepole tree on the trail?

Along the trail, we had more glorious views of the Rocky Mountains.

We also saw an array of beautiful wildflowers, more chipmunks, and various fungi along the trail.

We also saw moss and lichens growing on some of the boulders along the trail.

We really enjoyed the beautiful views and the cool mountain air while walking on the trail. 

I was excited to see the 14,259 foot high Longs Peak, located in Rocky Mountain National Park, in the distance.

When we saw this fresh scat, however, we knew it was time to turn back and head home, as we were not carrying bear spray with us.  The black bears have been very active this time of the year along the Front Range, bulking up for their winter hibernation. They need to consume over 20,000 calories a day! Unfortunately, the very rainy spring Colorado had this year, among other weather conditions, caused a decrease in the acorns and berries they like to eat.  They are roaming further into civilization, in search of food, including one cub that was recently found roaming on a street in Denver!  We are careful not to have bird feeders hanging in our backyard this time of the year, and to keep our garbage can inside our closed garage and only leave it curbside the morning of pickup. I've also learned to look up into the trees when I walk on a trail, as it is very possible a bear could be up in a tree! Click here to read my blog post where I learned that lesson!

Here is a short Youtube video about winter activities in Golden Gate Canyon Park produced by Colorado State Parks:  (click here if the video is not visible)



I feel very fortunate that this beautiful state park is just a half-hour drive from my house! It is a place I'll be returning there often in the coming seasons and years. Who knows, I might even buy some snowshoes and hike in winter!  Do you participate in winter activities? What is your favorite thing to do?

Oak Alley and Evergreen Plantations

Beautiful Oak Alley Plantation is an antebellum sugar cane plantation located in Vacherie, Louisiana, at 3645 Highway 18 (Great River Road), along the Mississippi River.  It is one of the most popular and most photographed of the Louisiana plantations, due to its alley of 300-year-old live oak trees that line its front entrance. It is a mystery who first planted the oak trees, that long ago, but their canopy of branches has made this one of the most dramatic entrances to a home along the Old River Road.  (All photos and photo collages in this post will enlarge for easier viewing if clicked on)

The back entrance to Oak Alley Plantation.

During my husband and my visit to New Orleans this past February (see post Part 1 and Part 2 to read about our experiences in New Orleans), we decided to take a side trip to visit a few plantations. We booked through The Old River Road Plantation Adventures company, and they picked us up at our hotel early one morning on their tour bus.  The driver/guide was a very interesting man of Cajun descent who was a wealth of information on all topics related to New Orleans, and the plantations we were going to tour, telling us about Code Noir, daily plantation life, slave auctions, customs of the day, Creoles and life in antebellum New Orleans. He kept us entertained with many stories as he drove the approximate 40 minutes towards Vacherie.

The Oak Alley house was originally known as Bon Sejour and was built in 1839 by Jacques Roman, where he lived along with his wife Marie Therese and children. until his death in 1848 from tuberculosis. His wife and then oldest son managed the estate but lost everything after the Civil War and they put the house up for auction in 1866.  It had successive owners and by 1925 was purchased by Andrew and Josephine Stewart. who were able to produce sugar cane again on its grounds.  When Mrs. Stewart passed away in 1972 she left the house and grounds to the Oak Alley Foundation, which opened them to the public.

We went on a half-hour tour inside the house. led by a guide in era costume.

 Portraits of the first owners and period furniture and accessories on display inside.

More views inside the house and of the porches and grounds.

Evergreen Plantation is located at 4677 Highway 18, in Edgard, Louisiana. The plantation includes 37 contributing buildings, all but eight of them antebellum, making it one of the most complete plantation complexes in the state and in the south.

The main house was constructed in 1790 and renovated to its current Greek Revival style in 1832. It was a privately owned operating sugar cane plantation until the depression in 1930 when it became bank-owned.

It also has several alleys of stately live oak trees on its grounds, although they do not lead up to the front of the house as they did in Oak Alley.

The Evergreen trees were draped with live moss that gently swayed in the wind.

Among the outbuildings are a separate kitchen, two "garconniere" where young bachelors of the family or guests could stay, two"pigeonnier" for keeping pigeons, which were a sign of status among the plantation holders, an overseer's cottage and late 19th century barns. We toured the inside of the house, but photography was not allowed.  You can see photos of the interior at this link.

The most haunting of all are the 22 original slave quarters arranged in a double row configuration.

Here, African slaves were housed, two families to a cabin. They labored in the sugar cane fields and in the big house for the plantation owners until they were emancipated after the Civil War. After the Civil War freed African Americans continued to work on the plantation and lived in the quarters until 1947.

One of the homes was open to the public.

All that was left inside was the bare floor and walls and dividing the fireplace in the middle. 

Outside this cabin were informative placards that describe the roles the African slaves served on the plantation, the archaeology project held here, along with...
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...the history of the antebellum era and the role of the freed African Americans. Click on the photo collages to enlarge them to read this interesting information.

It was sobering to think about how human life was bought and sold in those days, and of the lives of those who lived here.

After visiting the two plantations we had lunch with our group, and then our Louisiana Plantation Adventure guide dropped us at the optional Cajun Pride Swamp Tour. The boat tour guide was a native Cajun who told us many fascinating stories about growing up and living on a bayou. This swamp is privately owned and is now a wildlife refuge. The guide told us about a terrible hurricane in 1915 that swept through this area, where many unidentified bodies were buried right where they were found, along the shore of the swamp.

Unfortunately, the weather was too cool for the alligators in the swamp to be active, but we did see some interesting wildlife:

We witnessed a dramatic struggle between a fish and a Cormorant bird, that went on for quite a while. The bird was victorious and eventually swallowed the fish whole!

We were also amused by quite a few raccoons who followed along the shore as the boat passed by.

They were obviously hoping someone would toss them a treat!

Taking a peek into life, both past and present, along the mighty Mississippi River in Louisiana were very enjoyable, and a nice side trip to take when visiting New Orleans. As the song says: Old Man River certainly "keeps on rolling along."  

Before we left New Orleans we visited the new National World War II Museum. I'll share highlights of that visit on my Memorial Day blog post, coming in a few weeks. In the meantime, I want to catch up on our life back in Colorado. We have snow for Mother's Day again this year, but thankfully the weather will return to the '70s and low '80s in a few days and I think that will be the end of frost until the fall.

  

The Denver Zoo

This week was spring break for our area's school district so my husband and I decided to take our grandsons to spend the day in the Denver Zoo! (All photos and photo collages in this post can be enlarged for easier viewing if clicked on)

The Denver Zoo is located at 2300 Steele Street in Denver, Colorado and is an 80-acre facility, founded in 1896. It is one of the most popular attractions in Denver. It became the first zoo in the United States to use naturalistic zoo enclosures rather than cages with bars.

If you click on to enlarge this photo you can see the general layout of the zoo and some of the day's shows.

Our grandsons were certainly excited to be here!

They each had their zoo maps to follow, and both decided to stop for a snack to give them fuel for all the walking we were going to do/

We enjoyed seeing the Siberian tigers, giraffes,  zebras, snow leopards and striped hyenas.

The bears --Grizzly, Asiatic Black bears and polar bears--looked to be very sleepy in the early morning sun! The Bear Mountain was built in 1918 and was the first naturalistic habitat of its kind in North America. It is composed of giant plaster casts of actual rock outcroppings from an area near Morrison, Colorado.

The bears may have been sleepy, but our grandboys were full of energy and enjoyed playing for a while in one of the zoo's playground areas.

We then went into the Tropical Discovery area, that mimics a rain forest environment with waterfalls and jungle ruins, where we saw a Komodo dragon, tropical fish, lizards and snakes, and giant turtles.

Next, we viewed the majestic Asian elephants! They splashed in the pools and roamed the two miles of trails in their new 10 acres "Toyota Elephant Passage" area.

Gibbon monkeys swung overhead on Monkey Island, and the boys had a chance to mimic them on another zoo playground.

We also saw camels, maned wolves, water buffalo, and rhinos, as well as other animals I did not photograph. You can see photos of all the animals that are contained in the Denver Zoo on this link.

One of my favorite areas was the Bird House that had over 200 species of exotic birds from around the world!  Many were allowed to fly free inside the building's natural settings.

We enjoyed a ride on the Conservation Carousel///

...and the Pioneer Train.

From the looks of these two happy boys, I'd say our day at the Denver Zoo was a happy one, don't you agree?

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