Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Fern Falls

First off, I'm not even going to lie.  This day was somewhat of a fail, but not entirely.  I'll tell you why in a bit.

Jo and I had most of the day off, so we decided to, that's right folks, go take a hike.  The weather has been downright hot lately, causing the snow to melt up in the high country, thus causing the rivers to swell and, in some cases, flood.  Because of this, we thought it would be the perfect time to hit up the waterfalls in the area, which are at their peak right about now.  Jo, wielding nothing but his trusty map and a quick wit, found a waterfall that neither of us had been to before, Granite Falls.  It's on the west side of RMNP, which is the far side of the park.

We set off on the drive, which we figured would take us about two hours.  On the way we stopped to check out this little boardwalk, which was really neat.  It went out over the water and was very beautiful.

After admiring the views and applying sunscreen, we continued on.  As we followed Trailridge Road, we began to notice those annoying bright orange cones along the side of the road, a portent of what was to come.  Dun-dun-duuuuuuunnnnn....
ROADWORK!  Ugh!  We hit the first spot on Trailridge, and waited for about 10 minutes before we played follow the leader with the red truck below.  That was kinda' fun.

The next few spots, however, weren't as amusing.  We dutifully took our places in the lines of cars and waited our turns, but we had a trailhead to get to, and we needed to get going.  The one good thing about coming to a standstill and not being able to make any forward progress was that it forced us to slow down and observe some fascinating creatures we might have otherwise missed.  We are always zipping around so fast in our automobiles that we forget to pause to admire the truly spectacular Constructionitus workerotonis in its natual habitat.  Jo and I got some pretty good pics of these little fellas as they went about there business, almost totally oblivious that we were even there.





Here, you see the sign that certain members of the species carry with them.  Getting this shot was very lucky, because it's almost always the female that is seen holding the sign, but this healthy male has taken on the role and seems to be doing a great job.





In this next shot we see C. workerotonis demonstrating that the sign is not only used to convey signals, but can also be used as a means of defense or, in this case, a means of escape from prying eyes.  Notice how this one has positioned the sign just so, shielding himself from the eyes of angry drivers who want to go about their business without experiencing delays of up to 30 minutes.  Truly fascinating behavior.





C. workerotonis are social creatures.  They tend to congregate to share a drink they're particularly fond of, which is made of fermented grains and which results in erratic but jovial behavior if drunk in large quantities.  This behavior is best observed around 5:00, but we were lucky to see these two interacting before that time.  Then again, it's 5:00 somewhere.





This litte fella seemed to be trying to cross the road.  I hope he made it okay.  It's important to always slow down in the cone zones these guys inhabit to avoid striking one as they trudge about.  C. workerotonis has developed a symbiotic relationship with another species, Copperus Oficcerous, to ensure this doesn't happen.




As fascinating as it was to be able to observe these creatures and document their unusual behavior, we eventually decided that we were simply running out of time, and needed to either get to the trailhead without any further delays or turn around.  After scoping out the situation up ahead, Jo and I made the hard decision to go back the way we had came and do Granite Falls another day.  This is why the day was a kinda a fail.


But this is why it wasn't entirely a fail.  Since we were unable to see Granite Falls, Jo suggested we check out Fern Falls instead.  This is the aspen-lined road we walked down to get to the trailhead.  Gorgeous.


We walked half a mile or so before getting to the actual trailhead, where we made a quick stop to add to Jo's collection.

And then we were off.  The trail was verdant, lush, and, in general, absolutely beautiful.

It followed a rushing river for a lot of the way.  I love me a trail that has water.

And this trail had plenty of it!  As aforementioned, the rapidly melting snow was causing all the rivers to swell.  There were several spots where little streams crossed the trail.

But we bravely pressed on, undaunted by the gushing blue fury of mother nature.

A few more wildflowers made their way into our collection....





Don't ask.


There were some cool rocks along the way, which, of coure, Jo had to go scramble on.  That's just what he does.  He can't help it.

We continued on.  It was a lovely day and a lovely trail. 


Eventually we came to what is known as "The Pool."  This shot was taken from the bridge that crosses the river.  This is the pool.

And this is a shot downsteam, standing on that same bridge.



We figured this was a good place to stop and snack on gorp and PB sandwiches, so that's just what we did.  The Fern Lake trail is a popular one, and the cute little chipmunk below, who knew exactly how cute and little and chipmunky he was, begged for treats the whole time we were eating.  We didn't give in to his pleading, beady little eyes, hoping to preserve some measure of wildness in his furry little body.  Alas, our efforts were for naught; as we left, we saw a group of hikers behind us throwing him peanuts.  Oh, well.  We tried.

This was the trail just after the pool.  I love the look of it, with the embedded rocks and all.  Very cool.

We hiked along and came across these guys coming down.

Of course I had Jo pose with them.  He loves llamas.

I've decided we should get a llama to take with us on our hikes. It would be very useful in carrying our packs.  The only problem I forsee, besides spit running down our faces when the llama gets mad, is that llamas attract swarms of hungry mosquitos.  Or, at least these ones did.  We got bitten up pretty good because of those nasty skeeters that were travelling with the llamas.

This shot is showing just how green the forest grown cover was.


And here is Fern Falls, in all it's glory.  The mist coming off the falls felt glorious after the uphill portion of the hike we had just completed.

We hung out around the falls for awhile, enjoying the general splendour.

This is a shot of downstream.
And another shot of the falls, with all the woody debris at its base.




Right next to the falls was this moss covered rock wall.  The following are some close-up shots we took of it.  Both Jo and I love mossy rock walls.



And then, sadly, it was time to turn around.  Here's a shot of the trail on the way back.  So green!

It really was a perfect day.  The sun was shining, birds were singing their songs, and bees were happily bumbling between the fragrant wildflowers peppering the forest.  We couldn't help but feel happy and full of life.  In fact, Jo was so full of joy that he couldn't resist frolicking and leaping through a field of wildflowers we passed along the way.  I tried to stop him, but I simply couldn't hold him back...  See for yourself.

After the spontaneous episode of jumping in the meadow, we walked down the same aspen-lined road you saw earlier.  Only, this time, there was a sweet father with his little girl to make the view a bit more tender.

There was water running along the road.

And lots of yellow wildflowers.  Golden Banner, I believe it's called.

And, to end on a creepy note... This little invertabrate predator was in a pond we passed along the way.  We're thinking it's a dragonfly larvae, but either way the huge pincers it's got are spooky.

And that was our hike!  It was disappointing not to be able to make it to Granite Falls, but we vowed we'd be back to give it another shot.

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