Rabbit Mountain Hike and St Vrain Greenway CO…

Since we are going to be in Longmont Colorado for a while as we await our appointment with a freightliner dealer to once again look at our failing gauges we have made ourselves comfortable in our tight site at the fairgrounds. One great thing about the fairgrounds is that it is located adjacent to the Boulder County Open Space which has lots of hike and bike trails around small lakes. The trails also connect to the St Vrain Greenway bike trails.

We have walked around the small lakes several times and also rode our bikes along the bike trails one afternoon. There are still some parts of the trails system under repair from some devastating flooding which occurred in Longmont in 2013. Another nice thing about the bike trails is that they go right by Left Hand Brewing where we stopped one day for happy hour and tasted some might fine brews.

Another great thing about our location is we are close to lots of hiking opportunities. One nice area we discovered was the Rabbit Mountain Open Space. There are several nice shorter hikes available there in the easternmost point of the foothills of the Rockies. The hikes are easy to moderate since they do take on some elevation but the trails are in excellent condition for hiking.

We opted to hike the Little Thompson Overlook trail which was a little over 3 miles in and out. There was about 380 feet of elevation gain over the 1.5 miles to the overlook. Since we aren’t yet used to the altitude this was a great hike to get us acclimated as we did huff and puff our way to the top. There are some rocky outcrops which drop straight down the hillside at the end which offer great views toward the mountains and over the towns below in the valley.

Its a great place to hike and one we will revisit. Also close by are the towns of Denver, Fort Collins and Boulder which we will likely visit while here. For better hiking we also plan to visit Rocky Mountain National Park when the temperatures warm up. So waiting for our repair is not such a chore since we are in a great location with a lot to do.

NOTE: We are now in the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont Colorado until, well, who knows when…

Hiking the Konza Tall Grass Prairie in the Flint Hills of Kansas…

While many of us love to hike in the mountains and love to stroll along the beaches in our beautiful country few will ever experience hiking in a tall grass prairie. Why? Because there are very few remaining true tall grass prairies in the USA and because most can be found in the so called “fly over” states. Some can be found in our home state of Texas but even there only 1% of the original 20 million acres of tall grass prairie remains. In fact the tallgrass prairie is the most endangered large ecosystem in North America!

Upon our arrival in Manhattan, Kansas a friend of mine whom I worked with back at Texas Parks and Wildlife (thanks Robert) told me about a nice tall grass prairie hike in Kansas called the Konza. The Konza is an 8,600-acre native tallgrass prairie preserve on mostly private land which is co-managed by Kansas State University and the Nature Conservancy. The Konza Prairie was previously a working cattle ranch and now is being managed to maintain its tall grass prairie.

Once home to large herds of bison Tall Grass Prairies such as the Konza are scarce. When one sees this tall grass prairie for the first time they may look out over the flint hills and see a vast sea of nothingness or they may see a vast sea of waving grasses below an endless sky. How one sees the tall grass prairie tells how much they will truly enjoy what they see and experience…

Why preserve such grasslands? These Native grasslands protect our watersheds by reducing erosion thus limiting sedimentation in our lakes and reservoirs. This results in increased water quality and an increase water supply. Species of grass, insects, birds and mammals which had shown decreasing numbers are now protected and allowed to flourish. Lastly they offer great seed banks for planting in other tracts of land to increase the acreage of tall grass prairies world wide.

These prairies only remain unplowed because the soils in the Flint Hills which are very rich are also too thin to plow. The flint and limestone are shallow making this a poor choice for farmland. Thus the Konza has not been plowed and retains its native characteristics.

Tall grass prairies are dominated by native grasses such as big and little bluestem, Indiangrass, and switchgrass. Big bluestem is known to grow as high as 10 feet tall! Woody species such as buckbrush and smooth sumac are constantly trying to invade these prairies but grazing and fire keep them in check. Managed grazing and controlled burning are used at optimal times to help these prairies thrive.

Home to Turkeys, deer and quail these prairies also house many endangered and threatened species such as the Attwater’s prairie chickens, Sprague’s Pipit and Le Conte’s Sparrow. On our trip there were numerous Dickcissels singing atop the tallest plants. Bison have even been reintroduced here. Not all of the land is covered in grasses as the steep drainages along King's Creek are dominated by Gallery forests and will have large quantities of burr and chinquapin oaks along with hackberry, walnut and hickory.

Lots of wildflowers were in the early stages of bloom during our visit to the Konza and most notable were the large numbers of Butterfly Milkweed, Plains Yellow Primrose and Foxglove Penstemon. Of course with so many flowing plants there were numerous insects and the butterflies were loving the now blooming Butterfly Milkweed. Although it is early for wildflowers at least we were treated to some nice displays and colors.

On our 2.8 mile hike we were treated to vast open sky, an unending sea of grass, a limitless horizon and a grand array of life. The Tall Grass Prairie is a great city of natural and native species all surviving in a sea of "nothing." Thanks again Robert for recommending this wonderful hike.

NOTE: We are add another day here at Perry Lake, KS so we won’t leave til Monday. Then we will drive a bit north to one of two casinos not too far away then into Nebraska for a while…

Lake Pointe RV Resort and New Braunfels, TX…

We booked Lake Pointe RV Resort for two weeks and it is amazing that one of those weeks has nearly passed. The park is exceptionally green this year and the water levels  of Canyon Lake are as high as I ever remember seeing them. This park has always had a resident deer herd that mills around the park as the park encourages visitors to feed the deer corn. Therefore it is not uncommon to see deer out your front door but the negative is that you better watch your step as deer poop is everywhere from these well fed deer.

One afternoon we decided to head over to New Braunfels for something to see and do. The River Road drive is one of many nice drives nearby and it follows the Guadalupe River which is one of the more scenic rivers in Texas and very popular with Toobers, people who like to float down the river in inner tubes. On the way to New Braunfels we crossed the scenic Guadalupe River about 4 or 5 times.

We parked near the downtown area and walked all around town and then over to Prince Solms Park which a water park that charges $10 for parking but then allows free entry. All around the park are neighborhoods with permit-only parking.  By finding free parking in town and walking to the park we were able to visit the park for free. At the park we saw lots of people in the water and many of them were enjoying a man made chute that sucks toobers in one side and “spits” them out the other side.

After our long walk we visited a brewery we have been to before that specializes in wheat beers. We partook in a couple of the tap beers and noticed that they now seem to sell more sours that wheats. We have never been a fan of sours so we didn’t try any.

This past weekend the our son, his wife and the grandkids came up for a few nights. We did all the fun things with them like playing baseball, cooking s’mores at the campfire, feeding the deer and taking several hikes to Canyon Lake to skip rocks. We certainly ate well and shared lots of conversations around the fire each night.

They all left on Sunday as the weather was a bit dicey with intermittent sprinkles. We always enjoy seeing our son and his family but man it really gets quiet when they leave. We will get to see them at least one more time before heading north. Which reminds me I better get going on our summer plans…

Spring Wildflowers, Lick Creek Park, College Station TX

Since we always pass through Texas on our trek from the east coast to the west coast to see our grandkids who live in San Antonio we always make sure to do so in the Spring. Spring in Texas is magical and we both feel it is the absolute best time to visit. Despite the occasional severe thunderstorm the temperatures are mild and the vibrant Spring green is evident everywhere. Not to mention Texas is one of my favorite places to see wild flowers and this is the time when they are prolific.

The best known Texas wildflowers are the bluebonnets (the Texas State flower) and there have been years where the countryside is blanketed in fields of blue. That isn’t true this year as there are fewer bluebonnets in southeastern Texas than I can ever recall. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other beautiful wildflowers taking advantage of the mild springtime temperatures in Texas. There are more Indian Paintbrush than I have seen in the past so the fields of blue are fields of red this particular season.

One of our favorite places to go for a long spring time walk in the Brazos Valley is Lick Creek Park.There are miles of trails and lots of wildflowers. Since I have blogged about this park before I will end this post with a series of pictures taken this month at the park…