Spring break hike

It really has been a low-key Spring Break -- only that one expedition to northeast Colorado on Monday. Tuesday was a stay at home day, Wednesday Rocket Boy took the kids swimming. Today we decided that since the weather was reasonable, we'd try for a hike. The boos complained, and I said if it was a really steep hike I wasn't going (too fat, still having trouble breathing). Gradually our more ambitious plans dwindled away until we ended up heading for north Boulder again, this time to what Rocket Boy calls Smelter Mesa. It's actually the Eagle Trail/Cobalt Trail/other trails.

We started off on the Eagle Trail, but soon diverged to (I think) the Cobalt Trail, to look at these interesting rock formations and to see if we could spot any fossils. The boys came here on a Rock Camp field trip once, and in any case, they like rocks. Kid B kept looking for quartz -- the trail itself has lots of it, but as Rocket Boy kept pointing out, it isn't from here, it was trucked in to help build the trail. Kid B was unimpressed and kept picking it up. "Look, rose quartz," he showed me, putting it in his pocket to take home for the rock garden. I am not sure if that is an OK thing to do -- it seems somewhat wrong to take native rocks, but is it also wrong to pick up a non-native rock that's helping to hold a trail together?

I also was keeping my eyes peeled for wildflowers, of which I saw a few. It's a little early, but April will be here in two days, so it's worth looking. I think this is something called Physaria belli (Bell's twinpod), which apparently blooms only in the Colorado Front Range foothills and is one of the earliest wildflowers found here (though don't quote me, because I am still very ignorant of Colorado wildflowers). I was pleased to find it!

We wandered around on and off the trails, as the storm clouds slowly gathered. We are due for a fairly significant storm coming in tonight and tomorrow, might get a bunch of rain and up to 3 inches of snow out of it by Saturday night. I like taking pictures of clouds.

Everything still seems so dry, even though we've had rain already this week and the ground was in fact a little muddy. It's still winter (in the plants' view), so nothing much is growing yet. At home, our yard has started to turn green, but the prairie grasses take their time.

This is not a wilderness trail -- you can see buildings and other signs of civilization all around. There's a prairie dog town, but prairie dogs don't seem to mind living near people. I guess I'd call it more of a historic trail, because you can also see all the remnants of when there was a smelter here. A lot of the rocks are funny colors, dyed unintentionally by all the toxic chemicals that were used (at least that's what Rocket Boy says). I picked up an interesting pale green rock, but he told me it was not safe to handle. And yet, this little tree continues to grow here -- it's been there a long time.

Rocket Boy took the twins over to a pile of limestone rocks that someone dumped up there once upon a time, because you can often find fossils in them -- and sure enough, we did find quite a few. Little ones, nothing worth keeping, but interesting nonetheless.

I helped them look for a while, but then I wandered off to look for more wildflowers -- found some pretty white ones, and the beginnings of what I think was a lupine of some sort. I kept hearing meadowlarks and finally spotted one, but as I started walking back toward the gate at the main part of the trail I saw a flash of blue that made my heart catch in my throat.

Bluebirds! Mountain bluebirds! One of the prettiest birds around here, and I counted SIX of them, three pairs, all flying around together. Some of them sat on the fence and I turned away to get my camera ready, so I wouldn't scare them off by staring at them. And what do you know? I managed to get several shots. None of them are that great, but I like this one because you've got the gorgeous male up above and then the much duller female below him and to the right, almost blending in with the dry grasses. The other females were bluer than this one -- she's really drab.

I wanted to spend more time with them, but the kids were yelling at me to come see something. I tried to shush them with hand movements, so as not to scare the birds, but it was hopeless. The birds vanished. No one got to see them, only on my camera. "Wow," the boos said, impressed by the pictures of the pretty birds. "Where did they go?"

We headed home then, after only about an hour -- not much of a hike, and yet it was a lovely hike. Rocks, fossils, prairie dogs, wildflowers, meadowlarks, and Mountain Bluebirds! Oh, and Kid B stepped on a cactus and the thorn went right through his little shoe. Ouch! So we even had an injury to make the experience complete.

Tomorrow Rocket Boy is going to try to take them to the train museum -- and yeah, I might go too, because they're going to have owls. It's a Harry Potter thing, the connection with the train museum being of course the Hogwarts Express. The train museum has had special Spring Break activities all week and we've missed every one of them, so this is our last chance.

And then we'll come home and settle in for some bad weather, which should be fun, since we've had so little of it this year. I've got the makings of a spinach lasagna and Rocket Boy has already made a big green salad. I could also make brownies or a pumpkin pie. And I ordered too much milk this week, so there's plenty for hot chocolate. It would be nice if we had a fireplace to curl up in front of, but you can't have everything.