Greenland Dog Park

Well finally after all these years, I am the Mayor.  Well, its a foursquare Mayor, but nevertheless, I am the Mayor of Greenland Dog Park (fourquare).  Here are few recent shots of the Dogs and me.

This is the view looking South from the Northeast corner.  You can see why the dogs like it-plenty of running room.

 Of course this time of year it is still active with little critters trying to find food for the winter, and my dogs trying to dig to find them.

Bridie Murphy rolling in the grass to get the smell of the land

 Zamboni just likes to run, she often does one lap with us, then gets lost digging.  When she comes up for air, she runs to where we are.  Once she would not come back to leave, so we left her.  She did not mind as there was plenty to do.  So had to go and drag her back home.

Found something!

Could they get their heads any further down the hole?

 Pikes Peak in the background.  From this view you can see why Zebulon Pike thought he could just hike up there in one day. The summit is about 25 miles from this point.

A newly refurbished barn sits north of the dog park.

Pikes Peak and Mt Herman

Panorama of the area

Colorado In the Fall

People know about Pikes Peak, but there is a back side to it.  Took a trip up when the Aspens were turning and this is what I found..  Wish the sun was out, but you can still see the Gold.

The back side of Pikes Peak

Above the Cripple Creek mining area

More of Pikes Peak

An hour in beauty to relax and unwind

This is San Diego University.  I was up there for two reasons; I have seen it from the Highway and always wondered what it was, and a friend working on a project asked for me to take pictures of Churches that had letters he could use in posters.  I needed to find letters to spell things like Love, Christ, Catholic, etc.   I got a lot of O's. You know how hard it is to find A's or C's?  I wish I had traveled up here sooner.  It provides a nice view of San Diego.  I think I will figure out the shortcut from the Air Port to the Spectrum center so I can spend a few moments here when I arrive.  

Hike up Palmer Watershed

Tried out a new hike today over in Monument.  It follows the watershed for the town of Palmer Lake and Monument.  Its pretty well traveled so you will run into a lot of people, but for this type of hike that is okay.  You start off on the edge of a canyon and follow the watershed.  You pass two reservoirs and when you finish the second you are about a mile in.  Then you have some choices, follow the access road or take any number of small trails up into the hills.   Bridie took the hardest one, it was steep, but got us the best view.   We ended up on an access road that leads to Rampart Road.  This was the first time in a long time that I came across someone in a 4-wheel drive vehicle, an old Range Rover.   We were probably 3 miles in now so turned around.  Thank God Bridie was paying attention because we came on a very small and hard to see trail.  I checked my GPS a few times and Bridie was right on all the turns.  She has good hiking sense.  I went farther than I wanted, but this has a lot of level hiking areas so it's not a constant grind until you get to the end of the second reservoir, then its steep and does not stop for over a mile.  The geology is interesting.  Lots of granite  I would rate this easy to moderate.  However, you can make it challenging by just picking one of the many side trails that seem to be everywhere.  Be sure to take your GPS or know where you are going farther in this trail its easy to get lost as the roads wind and intersect all over the place.

New Morning Exercise--Hiking the Ramparts

So I decided that since the sun comes up so early every morning, and the dogs need a good walk to leave me alone, and I work well into the night sometimes, I have started a daily hike up Stanley Canyon.  I don't go all the way, that is 2 1/2 miles and about a 3 hour trek.  I only go up to what I call the twisted tree--that is a huge log that is all twisted.    Here are some photos.  In the early morning you see more wild life; wild turkeys and deer.  The bears are still staying up high, they start coming down in September to gorge...  I link this hike because there is a nice stream and the dogs love that!  Starting to see the summer amateurs.  Entire families not prepared for the day.  For the most part they are lucky and they don't have to deal with the weather or poor conditions.  Some still wearing sandals on a medium grade hike--unbelievable.

Nice Hike Ruined by Carless Bikers

Today I took the girls up Green Mountain for a hike.  I like this hike because few hikers are ever on the trail and the ones that are, are serious and respect the environment.  Few know of the trails.  Today I found one of the shortcut trails to the top was vandalized by mountain bikers.  Trees were cut down, rocks pulled from the trail and moved (you know what that does?  It starts new erosion).  You could see freshly cut trees, branches and large rocks dug up and moved.  There was the tale tale sign of mountain bike trails.   This is a path that needs to be gently used, they now created a new potential wash out.  This is a National Forest where cutting trees and moving large rocks is forbidden.  Sad.  Then when I got to the top there were what I call the "Beer Guzzling, Red Neck, Outdoorsmen" on their ATVs tearing up the mountain some more.  Again this is an area that is clearly posted "NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES".  This was a dad in his 4X4 Ford and his two kids following in their ATVs.  From the looks of it they all needed to get out an walk, they all looked like they were pushing 300lbs.   Why do people have to tear up the environment for their own selfish enjoyment?  I took a few pictures of the area to remind me what it looks like before these idiots ruin it all.  With all the rain we had last year, there is a lot of dead vegetation---those hot exhausts will surly set off a fire...

Spring is here--well almost

So this weekend I took the girls out for a 5 mile easy hike in the Spruce Mountain Open Space.  This is a nice Sunday afternoon hike, the total elevation rise is around 400 feet so its not too steep. The Douglas County Open Space Program was created in 1994 with the passage of a sixth-of-a-cent sales and use tax.  The Open Space keeps a nice separation between Denver and Colorado Springs.  The top picture is from the top of Spruce Mountain looking back toward Castle Rock.  You could almost film an old western movie out there as it still looks like you should be expecting to see a herd of Buffalo or an Indian Tribe crossing the plains.  Spruce Mountain is just west of I-25 prior to Monument "pass".   A few days before this hike we were wandering around Green Mountain over by the Academy and I could see the Crocus were just beginning to come out.  They were in full bloom at Spruce Mountain.  There is this little blue Crocus that comes up here every spring.  I transplanted one to my backyard and it bloomed for several years until other plants edged it out.  The rules for the open space are pretty strict--dogs are to be on leash--no exceptions.  This is the third time I have been on this trail, up until this hike I was the only one leasing the dogs.   I usually don't lease Bridie, she stays 10-20 feet from me at all times and comes back when I call her.  She stays away from strangers, but I did leash her when people came by.  I think the dogs like to get to the top of the mountains.  Once we get there they love to stare off into the distance.  Zamboni was watching the chipmunks, probably was thinking they would be a good snack.

This is a good hike if your from out of town, just want an easy go of it, don't want to drive too far and don't want to mess with the crowds.