This is my third and I think final installment of my series of posts celebrating my one year anniversary of living in Colorado by sharing some of its natural geologic beauty.
If you are just joining us, here are the previous two posts in this series:
Today’s post is about a recent hike (two weekends ago) at Castlewood Canyon State Park.
And let me kick off this post with a photo I took early in the hike that I think is quite lovely (I forgot which smartphone camera settings I used, perhaps “Sepia”):
Although we did not hike into this specific area (the site of the remains of Castlewood Canyon Dam), Wikipedia has some interesting history on Castlewood Canyon State Park:
The park retains a unique part of Colorado’s history, the remains of Castlewood Canyon Dam. Visitors can still see the remnants and damage from that dam which burst in 1933. The event sent a 15-foot (5 m) wave of water all the way to downtown Denver resulting in a flood.
My partner John and I brought Mike the miniature schnauzer with us, and once again, as in photos in other posts in this series of posts, Mike got to hike in the backpack:
Yes, Mike is one spoiled miniature schnauzer!
With social distancing in place, hiking was a bit tricky when we got to narrow areas as if there was another set of people walking by we had to get at least six (6) feet away from them. This got a wee bit cumbersome during the hike at times, especially if there was a large family group hiking.
During this time of social distancing, I always wonder if dogs think that humans just do not like each other any longer, as they are always avoiding one another as much as possible!
You cannot sit at any of the park benches or picnic areas (they are closed off during the COVID-times) but we did have a nice picnic on a large rock next to a stream during our hike.
As you can see in the first photo, Mike looked on as lunch was prepared and eaten, wondering why he was not invited to the feast (we did bring dog treats and water for him of course)!
I will close out this post with some of my favorite photos from the several hour afternoon hike at Castlewood Canyon State Park in both color and black & white. Thanks for virtually sharing this hike with me!
Here is the description of this spectacular park from the 
My partner John, who took the photos, had to precariously hand me Mike once I got myself safely positions on the rocks in the middle of the water.
All I can say is that these images do not do the beauty of this place justice.
And to close out this post, here is me, feeling quite happy and blessed to be a on a beautiful hike, on a beautiful day, in the beautiful state of Colorado!
I put an arrow where the female turkey was and she did not seem very interested in any of them (she kept wandering away) while they took turns (or simultaneously) displaying their plumages!
Next post (which is the final one in this series of posts) I will share photos and stories from our Quilt Shop Hopping in Northern California!
Oh yes there we a lot more, but I figure four images is enough to expose you to 🙂
The tunnel was lined with bird nests, which also looked quite interesting in B&W:
Pretty cool, eh?
In my neighborhood we also had the “Mother of All Sunflowers” – a serious 
Smartphone cameras are a dangerous thing, eh?
