Trip to Denver: Part 3 Garden of the Gods

I can’t believe I’m just now finishing up my trip to Denver (which occurred the first week of October).  Between lots of traveling the month of October and then catching up on work and then more recently a three-day stay in the hospital, I’m really behind on my blog. But thankfully I’m finally on the mend and clear headed enough to write some more.

Our last day on our trip we stayed the night in Colorado Springs. After all that hiking and climbing of stairs at Seven Falls, we were ready to head home. But before leaving we wanted to see the Garden of the Gods. The day dawned cloudy and gloomy so we weren’t optimistic about great photos.

Even though it was dreary, the rock formations were still beautiful.

image

image

As soon as we started exploring the trails, I realized there were birds everywhere. I was in birding withdrawals by now, so I immediately put on my birding lens. Because of the low light conditions, I wasn’t optimistic about great photos. But it was still wonderful to see so many birds.

Mostly seen were robins. They were everywhere. But I was surprised to see a Blue Jay. He was extremely shy though and only managed one poor photo.

image

Blue Jay on the left and American Robins with him

image

American Robin

The Townsend Solitaires were singing loudly.

image

Townsend Solitaire

image

Townsend Solitaire

There was a Northern Flicker poking around the cracks in the rocks looking for breakfast.

image

Northern Flicker

image

Northern Flicker

image

Northern Flicker

I saw a few other birds among the bushes.

image

Scrub Jay

image

White-Crowned Sparrow

image

Spotted Towhee

But the highlight of the bird sightings was coming up. I kept noticing this flock of pigeons that would fly off then land only to fly again.

image

Rock Pidgeons

I figured there must be a raptor of some kind hanging out. Sure enough, I walked around a rock formation and saw him.  I was very excited because it was a Merlin. A new bird for me!

image

Merlin hanging out up high

image

Merlin

Soon after I spotted him he was off chasing those pigeons.
I also saw a white-throated swift – another new bird for me. I got one terrible photo for my bird book but other than that they were flying too fast and high to get a decent shot.

After birding for awhile, I switched lenses to photograph some of the beautiful scenery.

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

After exploring for awhile we decided to drive to another part of the park called Balanced Rock.  Its a neat formation.

image

Valerie decided to climb up to it for a closer look. She was being very silly.  Thinking she could play around with this huge Balanced Rock.

image

Sadly….I had to finish our trip home alone. She just had to go up there and push on that rock. She couldn’t leave well enough alone. I will miss my crazy friend…..

image

Valerie trapped under the Balanced Rock

Just kidding! She’s alive and well!

We had a wonderful long weekend. But it was time to head home. We needed to rest up for our next adventure!

7 thoughts on “Trip to Denver: Part 3 Garden of the Gods

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.