We got out and took advantage of the great weather the last couple of days and tried a hike we hadn't done before. The Columbine Trail in Cheyenne Canyon starts at the bottom of the canyon and goes up to the bottom of Helen Hunt Falls. It's 4 mi. one way and we did it up and back. We also did the HH Falls hike which was .6 mi., nice but the water was low. The columbine trail follows the road some of the time and you can hear traffic but most of the trail is away from everything. It took us about 4 hr. and 15 min. So our total was 8.6 mi. I could really feel it when we got home! The canyon has lots of rock formations and great views (we could even see the Broadmoor). A couple of times we could hear the chimes of the Will Rogers Shrine. When I was pregnant with Val and took Arn's mom with me to Co. we went to the shrine and also to Helen Hunt Falls.
I still can't figure out how to turn a posted pic! Note the sideways pic of me.
Sunday we met Meredith in Buena Vista to take a load of her things to her. We lunched at the Eddyline Brewery and checked out the BV River Walk. It was pretty cool and the outdoor seating area was really creative! It was all made out of colorful tile cement furniture. Meredith may be in CB for a year. She's working for Camp 4 Coffee and wants to volunteer on the mountain.
On the way back we decided to go over the mountains (basically wilderness) from Woodland Park to Monument and come down over Mt. Herman. We made a wrong turn and drove for 1 1/2 hr. to the back of Garden of the Gods. I think it would have taken about 45 min. if we'd gone the right way. We did see lots of scenery and canyons we hadn't seen before. It was another world up there!
Wildlife spotting this weekend. Two deer crossed our trail on Sat. and we spotted a bald eagle on the drive back from BV on Sunday.
