Great Sand Dunes National Park

 I don't think the photos below do justice to the dunes and nearby Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  Mind you, I don't like getting all sandy from visiting Pensacola Beach, but this was different!  My motel room had a great view of the sand dunes and mountains.  I enjoyed hiking around the dunes although I didn't climb the highest one.  The park is at 8216 feet and the highest dune is another 750 feet.  I was glad to trek around without being out of breath.

The dunes and late afternoon sun created lovely serpentine patterns of shade and light.

 I loved the rippled sand patterns on the dunes.

 The Visitor's Center can be seen at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mts. just to the right of center.

 I had great luck finding three six-point buck mule deer out on the plains.  I also got some interesting clouds in the morning.

Saw three or four female mule deer on the first day in the late afternoon.

 The winds over night erased most of the footprints and the patterns you see are caused by the different types of grains of sand.  I noticed when I was walking on the sand yesterday that their were different sized and colored grains.  This sand is coarse by Pensacola Beach standards.  After walking on it for an hour or so, I hardly had any sand in my athletic shoes.  At Pensacola Beach my shoes would have been filled.

 Lots of rabbit brush and goldenrod in bloom (much to the demise of my sinuses and allergies.)

 The rabbit brush (yellow) flowers, sunflowers, and the purple asters were fantastic.

 The lodge I stayed at during my visit is in this photo.  It was just outside the park's gate.  I had great views of the dunes from the rear patio and great views of the mountains from my front door.

Pike's Peak & Rocky Mountain National Park

 Pikes Peak was not what I had hoped for.  Not much opportunity to take photos on the way up on the cog train.  The views were limited by the rock and trees.  I did enjoy seeing the hummingbirds at the station while I waited for my train.

A view from the top of Pikes Peak, 14,110 feet above sea level.  A reservoir high in the mountains above Colorado Springs.

Its definitely cold up at over 14,000 feet!  There are no large bushes and no trees at that altitude.  It's just lichen and barren rocks.

Colorado Springs in the background as well as the plains leading to Kansas.

White prickly poppies in Rocky Mountain National Park

A smoky haze hangs over a valley on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountain NP from the forest fire near Boulder, Colorado

One well-fed chubby squirrel

This female elk seen on the western side of Rocky Mountain NP.

Truly pleased to see a young bull moose on the western side of Rocky Mountain NP

Here are a group of photos of the Rocky Mountains that are part of the National Park.

Kansas "Commentary" & Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

This is my second drive through this part of Kansas.  Yeah, I am that crazy, but I saw these neat sculpture and mobiles on my first trip and kicked myself for not stopping and taking some photos.  On Sunday I took these  photos in the small town of Mullinsville Kansas (289 people).  An eccentric and cantankerous old Navy veteran is the folk artist who created these sculptures and mobiles. The old guy, M.T. Liggett, derisively makes fun of politicians and some his road artwork is sure to offend both left-wing and right-wing political thinkers.  You don't have to have a vivid imagination to figure out where the state board of education's " head" is located in the second photo.  If you despise Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, James Carville, and right-wing republicans in general, there's artwork for you to enjoy along the highway!  If you are curious about this cantankerous old man, here is a link http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11212.

As many of you know, I love wildflowers.  This field of sunflowers is wild, though they grow sunflowers commercially in Kansas, eastern Colorado, Nebraska, and both Dakotas.

Not sure these whether the horses and Angus steer in this sunflower field were in western Kansas or eastern Colorado.  There isn't much difference geologically.

Garden of the Gods was a gift to the City of Colorado Springs from a local railroad mogul - philanthropist.  It's more of a rock garden than floral one.  There certainly are many interesting rock formations and the hikers and rock climbers love this perpetually free park.

Lots of people were at the park on the Labor Day holiday.  I read not too long ago that Colorado has the most physically fit people in the USA and I believe it.  I never saw so many people of all ages involved and engaged in hiking, biking, walking etc.

This rock formation is know as kissing camels.  It may not be obvious from this photo, but it is in person.

Ah, the wildflowers.  Mostly yellow and some purple seen at these locations.

They say, "you are what you eat."  It seems true for this bee that seems decidedly more yellow-orange than normal

Fredericksburg Texas, April 2006

In mid April of 2006 Mary Lou and spent two days in Fredericksburg, Texas on our way home from New Mexico. Why two days in Fredericksburg Texas? Well its almost 900 miles across Texas on I-10 from El Paso to the Louisiana border. If you want to drive to places favored by my wife and I in New Mexico and Arizona, then you have to go through Texas. Most people dread the long drive and see it as boring and tedious, sort of like reading this drivel. I decided when I retired to make the most of this time. I discovered Fredericksburg, a city in the hill country of Texas, after searching the Internet for places to stop on our way to and from the Southwest. There are a number of wineries with tours and tastings in Fredericksburg. (Not bad stuff after a long, or short, day's drive.) Fredericksburg is the home of Adm. Chester Nimitz a great Navy WW II hero and his namesake foundation runs the National Museum of the Pacific War there. Fredericksburg, named for Frederick the Great, was an German enclave whose original inhabitants were invited there by the Mexican government well before the Texas rebellion for independence. (The Mexicans were looking for some folks not as contentious as those damned Americans!) In addition to grapes for wine, the hill country farmers grow peaches and pecans in great quantities. What I liked the most, however, were the wildflowers grown at Wild Seed Farm, 200-acres dedicated to propagating and selling native wildflower products. Of course the German "Biergarten" and butterfly house at the farm didn't hurt either. Those butterflies can look downright psychedelic after a couple of local brews. Oh yeah, Fredericksburg has plenty of German restaurants, but after making one more futile attempt, I still do NOT like German food ( except for the fantastic apple strudel we bought at a small bakery on the west side of Fredericksburg.)

Some of the 200 acres of flowers at Wild Seed Farm.


More wild beauties.


Of course I had to include some Texas bluebonnets.


A variety of flowers in their show garden.


While these flowers above look like lupine, I believe they were listed as larkspur.


Lots of poppies for sale.


Large fields of flowers from which they sell the seeds.


Not sure how those few white flowers got into that field of blue.


Had to include this photo of a cat in a bird bath in another garden in that town.


The butterfly house had a decent display of butterflies ( a monarch and short tail swallowtail).


I believe that this is a queen butterfly.


Some type of orange fritillary.


Hmmm, I need to check my Audubon Butterfly book.

Another orange fritillary