I hope you’re not tiring of my Denver trip pictures… If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I took a trip to visit Mom in Arkansas, and she and I drove to Denver to visit Aunt Patty. I spent most of Holga Week 2021 in the Mile High, then had a layover in Topeka, KS, on the way back to Arkansas to drop off Mom and sleep off my road weariness before returning home. If you’ve been following along, you know this already, and have already seen scenes from and heard stories from the trip, so apologies in advance, but it’s going to be Denver Trip for a few weeks yet…
One morning, Mom and I drove up to the Chautauqua trailhead in Boulder, CO. Mom stayed around Chautauqua with her watercolor kit while I headed up the Chautauqua trail to the Flatiron Loop, around the loop back to the Bluebell-Baird trail, to the Bluebell Mesa trail, which led back to the Chautauqua trail and Mom. All told, it was nearly 4 miles, about half of which was uphill.
Thankfully, the bagful of cameras I had along gave me plenty of reason to stop and catch my breath frame up a shot.
Near the top, I heard a crashing through the wood and stopped by a clearing. Seconds later…
First one deer, then another came bounding out of the woods. The first one stopped and watched me make pictures of it while the second crouched in the underbrush to wait me out. After a few moments, the first one continued its jog up the hill, while the second continued to hide. A somewhat-more-active-than-me couple came down, loudly wondering about the crashing noises. I pointed at the deer and wished them well and went on my way.
I’ve already written enough about the jerk nicest Coloradan I met on the trail. You can sorta make him out in the shadows there. I’ll neither speak of nor show a photograph of him again.
If you find yourself in Denver, do yourself a favor and go hike the Flatirons. It’s beautiful and the parks up in the mountains are fabulous.
I figured I’d left Mom alone long enough, and headed down. After about 90 minutes walking straight uphill, and about 40 wandering around near the top, it only took me about 20 to walk back down, and near to the bottom, I had the good sense to take a picture of the hike I just made…
Good times.
