Showing posts with label Saturday Critters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saturday Critters. Show all posts

Monday, August 3, 2026

Happy 150th Birthday to Colorado!


Happy month of August to all!

August first was the sesquicentennial- 150th- anniversary of Colorado's statehood, and many Colorado Day celebrations were held throughout the state.
My husband and I decided to celebrate by taking a drive to nearby areas where we enjoy the scenery.
Our first stop was Golden Gate Canyon State Park, one of the 42 Colorado State Parks. Admission was free for all Colorado state parks for Colorado Day. 
 The park is located in Gilpin and Jefferson counties, around 30 miles west of Denver.  This 11,998-acre Front Range Park has 35 miles of hiking trails. It includes facilities such as a visitor center, 156 campsites, stocked fishing ponds, and over 125 picnic sites.

 (All photos and photo collages in this post will enlarge for easier viewing if clicked on)



Panorama Point Scenic Overlook in Golden Gate Canyon State Park offers spectacular views of more than 100 miles of Colorado’s Continental Divide year-round.


We enjoyed the views, the cooler temperatures at a higher elevation, and a walk along a trail. 


I was pleased to see some wildflowers along the trail despite Colorado's long drought.


Next, we drove on the Peak to Peak Scenic Highway towards Estes Park.

I blogged about this very scenic drive in this post when there was snow on the Rocky Mountains--quite a different view!


We entered Estes Park — a beautiful town just outside the eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.

I've blogged about both locations many times, as you can see from labels on my blog sidebar, as we have had many wonderful times in both locations in the thirteen years that we've lived in Colorado.



On this occasion, we went to one of our favorite places to dine in Estes Park--Smokin Dave's Barbecue! My husband and I ordered a double platter meal that comes with two sides and a corn muffin. Needless to say, there was so much delicious food that we both had leftovers to take home <smile>

From Estes Park, we drove a portion of US Route 36 toward our home. It travels through a beautiful portion of St. Vrain Canyon, alongside St Vrain Creek.

It was a wonderful day out and a fun way to celebrate Colorado turning 150 years old as the 38th state of the United States!

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Sunday, July 26, 2026

The Enjoyment of Hiking On Our Local Colorado Trails


 


Our neighborhood has many miles of local trails. Some were built and are maintained by our HOA Master Association and therefore are private for residents only, and some are our county's open space parks available to all.


This is a beautiful world, and all who go out under the open sky will feel the gentle, kindly influence of nature and hear her good tidings." ~ Enos Mills

Some of the trails are concrete, some are gravel, and others are dirt. Many are utilized by hikers, bicycle riders, and horseback riders. I am not the fastest hiker going uphill, but slowly and surely, I manage. Taking photos helps me get a bit of rest before I go on.


"For how many years did I wander slowly...what wonders and glory I could have missed had I ever been in a hurry! ~ Mary Oliver



" Keep close to Nature's heart...
and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."
~ Johm Muir


The trails pass red rock formations and meadows, and some gain a thousand feet of elevation beyond our area's average 6,000 feet (1828 Meters) elevation.

Over the years, my husband and I have walked the trails alone, with each other, our children, and with friends.


"The battle for conservation will go on endlessly.  It is part of the universal battle between right and wrong." 
~John Muir


I have photographed hundreds of wildflowers along the trails...these were just a few!


"I hope you are blessed with a heart like a wildflower
Strong enough to rise again after being trampled upon. tough enough to weather the worst of summer storms, and able to grow and flourish, even in the most broken places."
~ Nikita Gill



We have walked in all kinds of weather and all the seasons...in spring and summer...


...in Autumn...

...and in winter.


"To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again." 
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson




“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
~ John Muir



On days we can't walk, and sadly, that has been many days because of high summer heat and poor air quality due to wildfires in our state this summer, my husband and I go to our nearby community gym. 
It's small, but it is usually not crowded, and it has enough machines to choose from to do an hour workout. I like that the gym bicycles can be programmed to show rides through different national parks and scenic rides all around the world!



Even the twin fawns that were born in our backyard in June have been feeling this summer's excessive heat. They have been seeking out the shade of our trees for coolness. It has been fun watching them grow!

Where do you like to walk where you live? 
How has the weather been where you live this season? 


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Sunday, July 12, 2026

Four Mile House Historic Park

Four Mile House is the oldest standing structure in the city of Denver, Colorado!

The oldest portion of the house was built in 1859, and the location served as the last stagecoach stop before entering what was then the "Colorado Gold Rush" city of Denver, on the Wells Fargo Butterfield Stagecoach route between El Paso and Denver.


Routes from the plains towards the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.
 
The Colorado Gold Rush, originally known as the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, started in 1858 and was the second largest mining excitement in United States history after the great California Gold Rush a decade earlier. Over 100,000 people participated in this rush and were known as “Fifty-Niners”, a reference to 1859, the year the rush to Colorado peaked.

“Pikes Peak or Bust” was the motto of many emigrants, a reference to the mountain in the Front Range that guided many early prospectors westward over the Great Plains.

Gold Rush Prospectors

Gold prospectors were the first major non-native population to enter the region, leading to the creation of many early towns, including Denver, Boulder, Golden, and numerous smaller mining towns, some of which are still active communities today.

As prospectors flooded the region in search of quick riches, the rapid population growth led to the creation of the Colorado Territory in 1861 and to the U.S. State of Colorado in 1876.

The rear of Four Mile House

Four Mile House was built in late summer or fall 1859 by the brothers Samuel and Jonas Brantner. In 1858, Jonas had come to Colorado from Ohio to look for gold. After prospecting unsuccessfully on Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, he gave up and staked a farming claim along Cherry Creek.

In August 1859, Jonas’s brother Samuel arrived in Colorado, and they soon built a two-story log house on Jonas’s land. Samuel, his wife, and their infant daughter occupied the house in October 1859.

 The house might have acquired the name “Four Mile House” in 1859 or 1860, when part of the Cherokee Trail began to be used by mail carriers traveling between Colorado City (now part of Colorado Springs) and Denver as well as by immigrants following the Smoky Hill Trail from Kansas to Denver. It was four miles from the house to Broadway in the city of Denver.


In 1860, the Brantners sold Four Mile House to Mary Cawker. A widow from Wisconsin, Cawker moved into the house with her two children that September. She operated it as a stage station with a bar downstairs and a tavern, and held dances on the second floor.


 Over the next decade, stages regularly stopped at the house to change horses and to allow passengers to change clothes and freshen up before they arrived in Denver after their 700-mile, 12-week journey across the midwestern and high desert plains.

Mary Cawker sold the house to Levi Booth for $800. An attorney originally from Wisconsin, Booth moved into the house with his family in August 1864. He continued to operate the house as a stage stop and tavern for the rest of the decade.


Over the years, the current U-shaped plan evolved as three buildings were butted together to accommodate changing needs. Together, the 1859 squared log construction, the circa 1860s woodframe construction, and the 1883 brick portions reflect the evolution of rural housing during the Denver area’s early settlement period.

Glendale neighborhood of Denver in the distance of the Four Mile House grounds.


In 1946, the Booth family sold Four Mile House to Glen Boulton, who stayed there for nearly thirty years. During those years, the house, previously on the edge of the city, was surrounded by development as Denver spread southeast and Glendale became an enclave of businesses and bars. In response to encroaching development, preservationists worked to ensure Four Mile House’s survival. In 1968, the house became a Denver landmark, and in 1969, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


In 1977, the nonprofit Four Mile Historic Park Inc. was formed to care for the property, which was opened to the public the next year as a living history museum.

One of the members of our friends group had volunteered as a tour guide for many years at Four Mile Park, and she decided to plan an outing for us to take a self-guided tour of the park and house, and then have lunch afterwards at a local restaurant.

Click on the collage to enlarge it.

We enjoyed looking at all the interesting history exhibits about Four Mile House in its Visitor Center...


...and then strolling the grounds to see how the land had been developed as a farm in the late 1800s, which included a school house...


... and a blacksmith shop, a summer kitchen, and a barn housing 1800s era transportation vehicles.


We had a guided tour of the inside of Four Mile House with a volunteer who told us more of its history.

Four Mile Historic Park is a great resource for educators and students to learn about Colorado’s early history and hosts many events for all ages during the year.



If you are a history enthusiast, and would like to learn more about Four Mile House there is an interesting PBS Experience show about it on YouTube with fascinating vintage photos of the covered wagons and stagecoach rides--see video above.

We we all so glad to see that Four Mile House was preserved and is now a wonderful view back into the pioneer days of our nation's history.



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Sunday, June 14, 2026

Twin Deer Fawns Were Born in My Yard Last Week!



The adorable twin mule deer fawns seen in this photo in my backyard were born last week on June 8th, 2026!


Google made this collage a bit out of sequence order...

My husband and I had gone out for breakfast to celebrate our June birthdays, and when we arrived home, we looked out the window to see if there were any deer in our yard, as we wanted to do some gardening. We saw a Mule Deer doe lying in the shade under a pine tree in our side yard. It was a hot day with temperatures reaching 90 degrees. When we saw two hoves, we realized she was in labor and about to give birth!
 
The gestation period for a Mule Deer's pregnancy is around 200 days, and many in our neighborhood were also seeing fawns being born. This was the second time we witnessed fawns being born in our backyard in the thirteen years we have lived here--see the first time in this blog post. 



Female deer that are giving birth for the first time, often called yearlings, typically have only a single fawn. Mature does, however, frequently produce twins. I could see this deer was still in labor with the second twin when a curious buck showed up in our yard! If you look closely, you can see that his new antlers were beginning to grow in.


A doe licks the newborn fawn and eats every part of the products of birth to remove their scent and protect the fawn from predators. The buck came close to see what she was doing, and she had to get up and chase him away three times before he left for good!


It was nice to watch how caring the Momma doe was to her fawn.



A short YouTube video of the first fawn twin taking its first steps on wobbly legs.



The doe retreated under the pine tree again to give birth to the second fawn.


It began to thunder, and we had a brief rain shower, so she stayed under the tree during the storm.


When the sun returned, the firstborn twin curled up to take a nap...


...while the doe cleaned the second-born twin and bonded with it.



Momma Doe also looked ready to take a nap! 

They all remained in our backyard until the next morning, when they left. 
Important: a doe will leave her fawns for long periods of time to protect them from predators, as fawns' fur does not have a discernible scent. She will return for short periods to allow them to feed. If you ever come across a fawn that is alone when hiking, leave it be!


It was the end of a beautiful day!

I know these fawns will be back in my yard from time to time this summer, and it will be fun watching them grow!


 



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