From abandoned campgrounds to abandoned dwellings in the canyons. We stopped at a tiny post office in Campo, Colorado to find out if there might be a local map of camping spots in the area. The Postmistress coulnd't find her map, but told us to "Just follow the signs" to find Picture Canyon or Carrizo Canyon. She warned us not to rely on Google Maps as the local roads don't all go through as it shows. We endured a VERY dusty road for 15 miles to try to find Picture Canyon where we hoped to find petroglyphs and pictographs. The road ran out at a farmhouse, where Jason got corrected directions from the lady of the house, who also including the comment, "Just follow the signs". The signs are tiny and hard to see, but we eventually did find the canyon.
Jason as we started a hike into the canyon.
This pictograph rewarded our perseverance. Petroglyphs are carved into the rock; pictographs are painted onto the rock surface. Some of this rock art is a combo. They date from 12000 to 400 years ago.
This stylized horse pictograph is featured on the brochures and signs.
These groove/lines carved into the stone may represent a timing or calendar use.
Skim ice on standing water in the canyon. Even though it was in the 50's and 60's during the day, the ice never quite went away.
Raccoon tracks in the sand on the trail.
An old homestead building made of the local rocks. We'd lost sight of the trail markers by now and were just following cow paths through the fields and rocks.
A rock wall of the homestead, still standing strong.
Jason at a spring back in the hills. A flock of pretty blue mountain bluebirds ringed this water source as we walked up and perched on tall weeds to wait for us to leave. The flow of the spring kept the water in the structure from freezing, but the overflow on the ground had turned to ice in the cold night.
Rock formations along the hike on the Rock Arch Trail.
Ancient sea beds, now raised, still contain the ripples from water. It's in this kind of rock that fossils and footprints of extinct animals are found.
We found lots of these nodules, accretions of minerals around a core. Split open, you can see the layers as different colors and mineral content. They look like boiled eggs. Note how the white, yellow and grey layer are in different orders in the different examples. These are also responsible for the lumps and bumps still embedded in other blocks of rock.
I broke this one open to see what was inside.
The massive rock arch for which this hiking trail is named. Love that Colorado blue sky in the background.
Some of the lumpy rock with nodules still intact.
Jason thought this looked like a turtle head.
Carrizo Canyon was just a few miles away, down another set of dusty roads. This is the view at the edge of the campground site.
Looking the other direction, the camping sites are on the top of a bluff over the creek. The water still had skim ice and there was snow in the shadows below the bluffs.
Once we found a way across the creek, we found more petroglyphs. Some are hard to make out but the grooved lines stand out.
I really liked these antlered forms. To see so many clustered in a group was unusual, especially since these haven't been vandalized with graffiti.
This could make a great Christmas decoration.
Some of the rock is weathering away and these figures will eventually be gone.
The curly tail on this animal with antlers puzzles me for an identification.
Small caves are abundant in the rocky hillsides.
I just loved the color impurities in this canyon wall.
Experts have identified 49 petroglyphs in this rock wall. I couldn't find anywhere near that many, but there are lots of things going on in this wall. Getting up closer and having a different angle to the light might help me see more, but these canyon walls are still pretty spectacular. I just wish people would stop defacing them with their own scribbles and scratches.
We finally ended up visiting family in the Metro Denver area. We decided to stay put in the unseasonably warm, dry weather for the holidays. Jason had some van projects he'd been saving for this time. I managed to sneak away one day for a hike with my brother. Devil's Head, by Pikes Peak was our original destination, but it was closed for the season, so we detoured to this little hidden gem of a hiking spot, Castlewood Canyon State Park.
Karen on a hike with brother Tom in Castlewood Canyon, CO.
A warm day with too many layers on, but a pretty canyon hike with snow and ice still on the creek.Tom surveying the valley below. It was a very pretty valley; it was easy to see why someone homesteaded here long ago.
We crossed Cherry Creek by stepping on the granite stones and boulders. The white ice hid some of the running water below it, but the gurgles led us to areas where the ice had melted around the edges.
Tom standing next to a huge spire of the conglomerate sandstone that makes up the rock walls in this Castlewood Canyon. Lots of different rocks all cemented together into this stuff.
Lacy edges and frost decorated the places where the water had melted through the ice in the creek. The bubbles, burbles, burps, and gurgles sounded really cool as the water tumbled below the ice layer.
I lost a glove, but another hiker said he'd seen it and put it on a rock in the sun. We ended up hiking the entire trail in reverse to find it.
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