2013 Adventures

Updated:  1-Jan-2014

            

January

Cold and cloudy month in Colorado! Nothing to take pictures of...

 

February

Ahh... warm again!  A couple of weeks in Peurto Morelos, Quintano Roo, Mexico a wonderful little village about 30 miles south of Cancun.

View from my hotel room balcony:

A gathering of the Dances of Universal Peace on the beach:

A big-eyed gecko roaming around on the wall of my hotel room. Interesting creatures... they have no eye-lids, so instead of blinking, their tongue darts out to wipe their eyes. It must be fun to walk up walls and windows:

Very peaceful beach in Puerto Morelos... unlike the nearby tourist towns of Cancun and Play del Carmen:

The old lighthouse (in the foreground) tipped over in a storm, new lighthouse is in the background, built farther from the beach to better withstand the hurricanes:

Sunrise, from the balcony of my hotel room:

A few fish hanging out around a small piece of coral near the shore:

View from the water, back toward the beach:

Ohh... welcomed back home in Colorado by somewhat cooler temperatures. Quite a difference:

 

March

Off to sunny, warm Arizona...

Fairy-Duster flowers:

Lizard out for some sun:

Wildflowers in bloom near Tucson in March:

                                        

This was scary! A loud rustly-buzzy-rattly racket suddenly started while we were walking through an arroyo west of Tucson. At first I though it was a little landslide, perhaps the sound of rocks rolling through the bushes. But then I decided that it must be some sort of huge cicada. But, it was neither a landslide nor a giant cicada. This noisy 2 m (6 ft) long rattlesnake was only about 3 m (9 ft) away, at shoulder height on the hillside:

Cochise Stronghold, in southeastern Arizona. From these rocky hillsides, the Chiricahua Apaches managed to avoid, or kill, the quite a number of the US troops sent to take them to a reservation:

Beautiful colors; a lizard warming up on a rock in Cochise Stronghold:

 

April

An encouraging sign that spring is on the way... Pasque flowers are beginning to bloom as the snow melts here in the Colorado foothills:

And another sign of spring, a Yellow Violet blooming:

 
Now, off to the Guadalupe Mountains in southern New Mexico... a magnificent Claret-Cup cactus flower:

Blooming Agave plant... this bloom will probably be about 3 m (10 ft) tall:

Trunk of an Alligator Pine tree...hmmm, wonder why they call it alligator pine?

Some of the April wildflowers in the Guadalupe Mountains:

At the Living Desert State Park, in Carlsbad, New Mexico... beautiful creatures. I heard that these were found injured, and were nursed back to health, but that due to their injuries they could not survive in the wild anymore:

Bald Eagle peering up at the Golden Eagle above:

These seem to be doing well in captivity too:

 

May

Off to Moab, Utah and Arches National Monument....

 
Native American rock art along the Colorado River... interesting characters... perhaps depicting a ceremony of some sort?

 

Corona Arch, a natural sandstone arch, about 40 m (140 ft) high:

Some Utah wildflowers blooming in May:

 






                                      

What a magical place!

Dances of Universal Peace gathering outside of Moab:

 

I had never seen a pink Mariposa Lily before (they're usually white)! There was a field with hundreds of these outside of Moab:

Funny "lizard head" teetering on the rock... and looking like it could tumble off at any moment:

And now back to Colorado...

The Pasque flowers are so magnificent! Their delicate pastel colors and soft textures are utterly delightful to me!

Some more May wildflowers in Colorado:

 

June

The snow is melting in the high mountains, and the creeks are flowing rapidly in Rocky Mountain National Park, Wild Basin:

A lovely, and rather tiny, Fairy-Slipper Orchid emerging through the litter of pine needles:

Hiking at 3400 m (11,000 ft) in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, near Rainbow Lakes. On this high tundra, where the winds blow ferociously, the flowers are often quite tiny.

 

July

Hiking near Cataract Lake, north of Silverthorne, Colorado. What a marvelous place.. it's like hiking in a garden!

On the Fourth of July Trail, near Nederland, Colorado:

Hiking on Willow Lake Trail, near Crestone, Colorado:

Afternoon shower in Crestone:

Gathering of DUP dancers at the Crestone Ziggurat:

The Agnes Vaille Falls, near Salida, Colorado... with nothing truly horizontal or vertical in sight:

 

August

Oops... I just barely missed getting a good picture of this moose along the Blue Lake Trail, near Ward, Colorado:

 

 

September

Here on the east side side of the Rocky Mountains, our late summer and early fall weather is usually rather sunny and dry. But not this year! Most areas around here got over a foot of rain in just a few days, and as that water came down out of the mountains, there was massive flooding.

My house is over half a mile from the St. Vrain Creek, which is usually little more than a trickle this time of year. But the little creek, which is usually only about 10 feet wide, became about a mile wide, and the flood waters began to approach to my house.

This is Airport Road, a major four lane road into my neighborhood... entirely underwater. The tops of fence posts along a farm field are the only sign that this is not normally a river:

And this is the view out my kitchen window as the waters crept closer and closer, but fortunately did not get any deeper:

Off to Canyonlands, near Moab, Utah to get out of this wet weather! I really enjoy these wonderful red rock formations:

And yet another gathering of the Dances of Universal Peace (very goofy name, but very nice group of people!). Outside the dance tent:

And inside the dance tent:

Big eyes in the red rocks... maybe a petrified owl??

October

First snowfall for the year. This is the view out my kitchen window. I guess summer is over.

November

Hmmm... must not have been anything photogenic in November. I didn't take any pictures the whole month.

 

December

On a cold winter morning, this magnificent Northern Harrier was looking for a snack in the snow in my back yard:

And now... off to begin some 2014 adventures!