We live next to the Rocky Mountains. That puts great hiking within less than an hour of our house. A week ago Saturday, when Cowgirl was with us, we ventured to a place we'd never been before, Mueller State Park. Located just minutes from a town called Divide, because it is where the Continental Divide actually is, it was easy to access, and the views were spectacular. Usually we see Pike's Peak to the West of us, but here, the majestic mountain is East. As we are looking West in the photo below, those are the Sangre de Cristo mountains far away, but we literally felt like we were close to the top of the world.
They had a lovely visitor center and we received some good maps. There were forty-four hikes available, and we selected two this Saturday, both based on the fact that herds of elk had recently been seen nearby. The first one was still somewhat snow-covered. Of course it had snowed by our house just the Tuesday before, but when its 72 degrees back home, we forget its still in the 40's and 50's in the mountains, and no, the snow hadn't all melted.
We saw some deer or elk tracks in the snow on the other side of this pond, but none here. The boys climbed on top of some nearby rocks to get a better vantage point of the area. Because of the hike itself had been somewhat snow-covered, we opted for another trail back to our car, and definitely easier than going uphill where we had just come downhill.
The second hike was called the Schoolhouse Pond Trail. We never saw the school house, though we did find this bench. Maybe in the wilderness all you need is a bench to start taking in all there is to learn. Still rather small, it was pretty and the hike much less snow-covered.
As we walked all around it, Mike found the remains of a deer. Everyone was excited to see it, until they realized the other parts of the remains was a few feet away. Our guess is a mountain lion pounced upon it when it came for a drink. This hike was easier in some respects and more difficult in others. I am not used to hiking at this altitude nor am I as young as I used to be, so while the kids walked ahead Mike held my hand and a few times pulled me up some of the steeper parts of the trail but I made it.
We were a little sad to have seen no wildlife on our hikes, but as soon as we got back onto the main road, we spotted a whole herd of elk back in the park. We parked the car and walked closer.
By the time I got there, the elk were starting to head back over the hill, but I caught a few on camera. That made our day. Then our dad decided to stop on the way home to get steaks and ice cream. We started up the grill for the first time this season, made a salad, baked some french fries and finished off the day full and content. Its not often enough that all six of us are together, and we truly made great memories this day!
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