We visited on Memorial Day morning to find the Grace’s Warbler that’s been seen there lately (next post). We only hiked a mile and a half of the more than 20 miles of trails, so we just scratched the surface of what there was to see. There were a lot of birds around, so I’m sure I’ll be back and explore more.
The park is located on the lower slopes of Cheyenne Mountain just south of Colorado Springs.
I drove Phantom Canyon Road on a Wednesday morning back in May, 2012. In 4½ hours on that trip, I saw maybe 15 cars. I wanted my wife to see it, so we drove it again on Memorial Day Sunday. This was a mistake. It was busy — several times we had to pull over to allow traffic from the other direction go by. Some of the cars and pickups were moving fast and kicking up dust. People were camping along the creek or parked in almost every pull-out. It was still beautiful, but it lacked that wonderful aspect of solitude that I experienced last time. I took tons of photos back then — you can see them here. This time I only stopped three or four times and only got out of the car twice.
This was funny. We were driving along near the bottom of the canyon when I thought I spotted an animal on a rock way above us — probably 100 yards from the road. I pulled over and grabbed my binoculars. A squirrel was standing there like a sentinel, staring off into the distance, not moving. We looked at it for maybe two minutes, and it didn’t flinch. It may be there still.
Gold was (and still is) found in the mountains around Victor, Colorado. The remains of several mines, built in the 1890’s and worked into the 1940’s, can be seen on the hillsides. A two-mile loop trail passes the Vindicator Mine and several others. There are old mine shafts and support buildings and houses, in varying states of decay scattered about. Pikes Peak is just to the east, and the Sawatch Range spans the horizon off to the west. We had the trail to ourselves and took our time to enjoy the scenery. (The fact that we were hiking at 10,000 feet had nothing to do with our slow pace.) There were birds around — Cassin’s Finches, Dusky Flycatchers, Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, and Red-tailed Hawks — even though there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground.
We could see huge trucks (note the outhouse for scale) hauling ore in the working mine up on the hilltop.
The town of Colorado City, established in 1859, was the first permanent community in the Pikes Peak region. In 1917, it was annexed by Colorado Springs. To celebrate this exciting history, Old Colorado City puts on a three day festival of silliness over Memorial Day Weekend every year. Three or four blocks of main street are blocked off and filled with booths. We decided to stop by, just to say we’d done it.
Parking was at a premium, but we found a free space on the street about two blocks away — right in front of a lot that was charging $10. We strolled along one side of the street to the far end of the fair. We passed:
We made it about a third of the way back down the other side of the street when the rain began. We ducked inside the old county office building where we found a few displays and a guy in mountain man clothes who lectured us on remembering the purpose of Memorial Day and then told us the rain wasn’t due to stop until 4:00.
Other people were finding shelter in the building too, and it soon became crowded. We dashed to a nearby storefront and took shelter under an awning, but it leaked and we were getting wet. Our next port was a store full of odd and silly gifts. When the saleslady offered to sell us ponchos for $2.00 we agreed. It took her five minutes to write out a sales receipt by hand. When we got outside and opened the ponchos up, we discovered they had no sleeves. The rain was coming down hard and it was getting chilly. We passed Jake and Telly’s Greek Taverna, which happens to be on my list of places to go, so we stopped in for lunch. The rain stopped and the sun came out about the time we were done eating. We headed back outside and walked back up the way we’d come to see what we’d missed. We shared a funnel cake as we walked and, due to later events that I won’t go into, I’ve decided it will be my last funnel cake ever.
We hadn’t gotten too far when it clouded over and started raining again. We headed for the car — by this time I was shaking with cold — and made it just before another deluge hit the area. All in all, we had more fun that we expected to. As street fairs go, it’s a pretty good one. We don’t feel compelled to go again, but you never know.
On the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, I woke up at 5:30. My air mattress, which I’ve been sleeping on for six months now, has given up the ghost and I was, for all intents and purposes, sleeping on the floor. I decided to get up and go for a walk. Even with a stop to pick up breakfast at McDonald’s, I was on the New Santa Fe Trail by 6:00. It was a beautiful morning — the sun lit up the front range and a cool breeze kept the hiking comfortable. There were a few other early hikers, but not many. I went six miles from Monument to Palmer Lake and back, stopping frequently to look at birds. My total for the morning was 42.
Green-tailed Towhee, Swainson’s Thrush, and Western Wood-Pewee, all photographed by holding my phone up to my binoculars.
Often, I left the trail and hiked a railroad service road that parallels it. The birds are slightly less disturbed by hikers and joggers.
Palmer Lake
I took this one on an evening hike earlier in the week. A Black-headed Grosbeak in front of Pikes Peak.
