Colorado Nature Narratives

The bright, white Niobrara Ridge is one of the rock ramparts that seems to guard the eastern approach to Pikes Peak. The Ridge can be seen from almost anywhere in Colorado Springs and is a prominent feature in two of the city’s most spectacular places—Garden of the Gods Park and Red Rock Canyon Open Space.

At Garden of the Gods Park, the Niobrara Ridge is in the foreground, with Kissing Camels and Pikes Peak beyond.

Recently, on an unseasonably warm afternoon, I began hiking east from the Garden’s south parking lot toward Rock Ledge Ranch. Then, I turned southward to traverse the Niobrara Ridge trail, “prospecting” for some of the Park’s many natural treasures. Along the way, I narrowed my attention from the expansive views of the Park and Pikes Peak, to birds foraging in the piñon and juniper trees, to rocky remnants of ancient life.

Ammonite fossil and the author's hand

Scattered throughout the Niobrara’s fractured white limestone are fossils of marine animals. Upon close inspection of the white rocks, I discovered circular shapes of ammonite fossils, their rough outlines catching the sun’s rays and casting curved shadows. Ammonites were similar to today’s chambered nautilus and had coiled or straight shells to protect their soft bodies. The ammonite fossils and white limestone of the Niobrara Ridge reveal a time in Earth’s history when a vast seaway covered one-third of the North American continent, including all of Colorado.

Widening my focus from the rocks, I was immediately rewarded by the twisted shapes of the one-seed juniper trees. Their roots push between the fractured rocks of the Niobrara Ridge and somehow find enough moisture to survive. The tiny blue berries of the junipers are actually miniature pinecones, and are a favorite food of the gray townsend solitaire, a year-round bird of the foothills.

Intermixed with the juniper trees are fragrant piñon pines. Both the piñons and the junipers are drought-tolerant tree species that grow primarily in the American Southwest. After checking several piñon pinecones, I found a few nuts hidden within the cones. In Colorado Springs, these evergreen trees are at the northern edge of their growing range, so the piñon nuts are usually very small and dry, unlike the plump nuts found in piñons growing further south.

Piñon nut near center of resin-covered pinecone

The quiet of the afternoon was broken by birds gleaning insects from the piñon-juniper woodland. Blue-gray gnatcatchers, black-capped chickadees, and dark-eyed juncos were in small, separate flocks, softly calling as they flew from tree to tree. Soon, the natural treasures of the Niobrara Ridge will increase as migrating birds return and spring wildflowers bloom. And, I will return to look for them.

Notes:

All three photos by author Melissa Walker

For a trail map of Garden of the Gods Park, visit the following webpage – http://www.springsgov.com/units/parksrec/maps/pdfmaps/gogs-pg1.pdf

At 5:00am, I was treated to my first unexpected view of the pre-dawn world. I opened the curtains of my west-facing window, and there was the constellation of Orion setting over Pikes Peak. The three bright stars of Orion’s belt glittered just above Pikes Peak like a crown of diamonds. The bright, very full moon gave no hint of what was to come.

However, by 5:45am, a hazy shadow began to shroud the upper left curve of the moon. My husband and I were now at our viewing location at the entrance to Garden of the Gods Park. We watched in silence as the Earth’s shadow began to cloak the top half of the moon. The December dawn sky presented other treasures. Sirius, the brightest star in our sky, was setting behind the pale saddle of Gray Rock, and the bright stars of Gemini sparkled high overhead.

Eclipsing moon setting before dawn, Garden of the Gods

Just as the top half of the moon was beginning to take on a faint red glow, matching the reddish hues of the towering sandstone rocks of Garden of the Gods, the moon slipped below the mountains of the Rampart Range. In the stillness of dawn, we could hear a great-horned owl hooting in the distance.

Photo Credit: Thanks to my husband Les Goss for capturing this moment.

A celestial event in the early morning hours of December 10 will add a new dimension to one of the most beautiful views in the world – Pikes Peak framed by the red rock spires of Garden of the Gods. On that morning, an eclipsed moon will set behind Pikes Peak. According to SKY AND TELESCOPE magazine, the Earth’s shadow will begin to eclipse the moon at 5:45 a.m. (Mountain Standard Time), and by 7:05 a.m., the moon will be in total eclipse.

Image via Wikipedia

Over the years, I have seen the Garden of the Gods’ magnificent red rocks and Pikes Peak cloaked by the snows of winter and the thunderclouds of summer, and illuminated by the bright light of dawn and the last rays of sunset. But I have never seen a shadowed moon set behind the famous view of the red rocks and Pikes Peak.

The weather forecast for December 10 is clear, yet I don’t know exactly what time the moon will disappear behind the western mountains, or how soon the light of the rising sun will fade the colors of the eclipsed moon. But I will be up early and watching, as there is always something new to discover.

Note: to read about the last total eclipse in Colorado on December 20 – 21, 2010, please visit my blogs dated December 15, 2010 and December 21, 2010 entitled “Anticipating the Total Lunar Eclipse on December 21, 2010″ and “It’s Midnight and the Moon is Slipping into Earth’s Shadow.”

Photo Credits: Partial Lunar Eclipse via Wikipedia;  Garden of the Gods with Pikes Peak by Nature Narratives author Melissa Walker

When I first moved to Colorado Springs, I was an 18-year-old college student. More than anything else about that first year, I remember the thrill of waking up every morning and looking out at Pikes Peak. My parents saved the letters I wrote that fall, letters full of long descriptions about the clear, crisp weather, the sky that always seemed to be blue, and the new snowfall on the tops of the mountains.

Having grown up comfortably enveloped in the hardwood and pine forests of Louisiana, I simply felt different in Colorado. I felt as tall as any tree as I gazed out at the expansive horizon. Views of horizons were new to me.

Here in this place, I could see where I wanted to go. I wanted to go around Cheyenne Mountain to see what was on the other side. I wanted to explore the upended rocks of Garden of the Gods. I wanted to climb Pikes Peak.

Then, I found that wherever I went in the Pikes Peak Region, I could see where I had been. On top of Mt. Cutler, I could see my dorm back on campus. On top of Pikes Peak, I could see the cottonwood trees marking Fountain Creek’s path to the Arkansas River—a river that eventually met the Mississippi and flowed through my home state. Like so many before me, I was captivated by this place. Now it is my home.

In the ensuing years, I have discovered that alongside this Region’s stunning beauty are unforgettable stories of its people; inseparable from its beauty are its native plants and wildlife; and the foundations of its beauty are its rocks, canyons, mountains and horizons.

Pikes Peak on the Horizon & Indian Paintbrush

Photo by Author Melissa Walker

Ten months ago in one of my first blogs, I used a quote from my favorite nature writer Ann Zwinger. The year 2010 marked the 40th anniversary of her classic natural history book, Beyond the Aspen Grove, still my favorite. I chose my nature blog’s tagline “always something new to discover” from Ann’s words:

Beginning to know these mountain acres has been to discover a puzzle with a million pieces already set out on a table. Occasionally a few pieces fit together and we gain another awareness of the land’s total pattern of existence, of its intricate interdependencies, enhanced by knowing that the puzzle will never be completed. There will always be something new to discover… (From Chapter 1, Beyond the Aspen Grove)

As I write today, a snowstorm has settled over Colorado Springs and every shape outside my window is now etched in white. With 2010 drawing to a close, I am reflecting on the turning seasons of this year and thought I’d share a few of my favorite Colorado discoveries with you, with homage to Ann Zwinger.

Sandhill Cranes and Sunset, Sangre de Cristo Mountains, late winter

Northern Flicker, late winter

Bobcat with two of her four kittens, late spring

Alpine Tundra Wildflowers: Alpine Forget-Me-Nots and Dwarf Clover on the west slope of Pikes Peak, mid-summer

Golden aspen leaves paint the mountainsides in autumn

Snow-covered Backyard with pond, aspen trees and tall stalks of teasel, early winter

Happy New Year!

Photo Credits: Cranes, Bobcats, Wildflowers, Aspen and Pond by Melissa Walker; Flicker by Les Goss

In 1869, William Jackson Palmer was inspired by the beauty of the Pikes Peak Region to build a city that would be worthy of its spectacular location. The following excerpt from Palmer’s August, 1869, letter describes his vision of the site for Colorado Springs, the city he founded two years later. Palmer’s words from 141 years ago still ring true and encourage me to join with others in our city to find ways to regain and continue his vision.

They could find nothing more attractive, perhaps,

In the whole of the Rocky Mountains.

Here where the air is fraught with health and vigor,

And where life would be poetry.

An idyll of blue sky… fantastic rock…

High mountains and distant view,

Of the kind that gives wing to the imagination.

View that gives wing to the imagination