Monica and I spent Mother's Day on the land, hiking from nearby Chapel Rock to Antelope Butte.
The day dawned without a cloud, illuminating a snow-white landscape, the product of a phenomenally intense snow squall the previous evening.
It was cold (-9 C) and calm when we set out, but the spring sun packed honest heat. Hiking was pleasant and, by noon, much of our traversed route was snow free, exposing green grass and emerging wildflowers.
Deer and elk moved across the landscape in front of us, while moose, inclined to stay put, watched as we passed.
Columbian ground squirrels were almost everywhere, and they created a moving wave of activity as they ran, disappeared below ground, then popped up in our wake.
Lingering snow and ice made the fractured faces of Chapel Rock too treacherous to traverse. And water, in another form, covered much of the land between high points, also altering our intended route of travel. The result: We were forced us to weave our way across the lowlands, jumping watercourses and slogging through sodden grasslands as we hiked between high points amid the folded and thrust-faulted landscape.
We lunched on top of Chapel Rock, where we experienced close flybys by bald and golden eagles, kestrels and ravens. Vocal sandhill cranes, northbound, were also in the air, and dusky and sharp-tailed grouse were occasionally under foot.
The liquid song of meadowlarks, surrounding us, seemed to be everywhere. Boreal chorus frogs, too, added their voices to the day, and the season.
Most of the observed prairie crocuses were bent and battered due to the overnight snow, while lesser (in stature) flowers (yellow Draba, kittentails, shooting stars, kinnikinnick, cushion cinquefoil, Townsendia, yellow bells), more resilient, tended to be bright and full of themselves once they'd shed their white blankets.
We came home late in the day with a little mud on our boots, a few pictures tucked inside our camera … and lingering questions surrounding the presence of a single swan seen in the headwaters of the Todd Creek landscape.
The two attached images incorporate a trailside footnote from a passing bear and, below it, a parting bouquet of moss phlox.
It was indeed a beautiful weekend up in the headwaters, David - thank you for bringing it home to us! Never have I seen so many beautiful birds ... eagles, humming birds, blue jays and countless others.
ReplyDelete