We woke up to a fine dusting of snow in Golden this morning!
Triceratops Trail
We walked down from our house into town today to walk the Triceratops Trail.
The area is directly adjacent to the Fossil Trace Golf Course and once was a clay mine for a local brick company. This photo is looking down into one of the pits left behind by the workers who mined clay strips between layers of harder rock.
Long narrow bands of clay run through Golden and extend both north and south.
These are raindrop impressions in the rock.
The bulges in the rock are dinosaur track impressions. In this pit some extremely important discoveries were made.
A cast of a dinosaur footprint.
Big footprints in the rock.
A little further up the pit.
This terraced slope was installed to stabilize the area where the dinosaur footprints are found and to provide access for the public. The area was actively mined up through the 1990s before it was donated to the City of Golden.
Looking into another long, narrow pit left behind by the clay miners. An old steam shovel is sticking up behind some trees. Some of the mining equipment was left behind as interesting things for people to look at while playing golf.
Another pit with trees.
Looking north toward the Colorado School of Mines campus and the Flatirons. One of the two steam shovels on the golf course is forever parked above one of the holes.
Another steam shovel at the east edge of the golf course next to some expensive houses.
North and South Table Mountains and the Coors plant poking out between the two mountains.
The impressions on either side of the little sign are triceratops tracks.
Dinosaurs once walked here.
Little animal tracks and burrows were preserved in this part of the rock.
Here is a log impression.
More big dinosaur tracks poking out of the rock.
Big and very well-defined triceratops track.
Palm frond leaf impressions in the rock. Neat!
Big fronds.
More dinosaur tracks. A metal roof was built over this part of the rock to prevent erosion of the footprints.
Lots of leaves here.
Looking up at the steam shovel above the golf course.
Some old clay processing equipment left behind when mining ended. In the background is Mines Park; a student housing project run by the university. Many of the students have better housing than a lot of professors.
Diamond Lake Hike
Heather and I went up the Fourth of July Road to the Fourth of July Trail to hike to Diamond Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. This is a late fall hike for Colorado. Surprisingly we ran into almost no snow.
The road up to the trailhead is pretty rough. My lowered Subaru Forester XT managed with only a few scrapes of the hard plastic mud flaps. The mountains loom large in this part of the state. I imagine at one point glaciers came down these narrow valleys.
A big waterfall on the other side of the canyon.
Mountains crowding over the shoulder of a ridge on the opposite side of the canyon.
Sawtooth mountain peaks.
Looking east toward Nederland and Boulder.
Heather on the trail at a water crossing. This trail was very busy and we weren’t even in high season. I would hate to come up here during a peak day in the summer.
Big mountains with a dusting of snow from the last storm.
Lots of granite.
A cascade of water coming down the middle of the valley.
Heather took a photo of me standing by the water.
Our first real sighting of snow.
Heather crossing a plank bridge section of the trail.
Big mountains to the north.
At the meadow just to the north of Diamond Lake.
Heather about to cross a little bridge across a muddy, but mostly dry creek bed.
Mountains to the north and east.
At Diamond Lake near the outlet.
I went out on a little point of rock looking for a way around the south side of the lake.
We managed to scramble around the steep side of the lake.
From a vantage point in the southeast corner of the lake.
Heather on a little peninsula of grass.
We encountered a rock field below the steep flank of one of the mountains that overlooks Diamond Lake.
Looking north from the south part of the lake.
Almost out of the rock field.
From near the primary inlet to the lake.
One of the big mountains looking down on the lake.
Up that drainage there is a very small lake and a big snowpack that feeds the creeks running down into Diamond Lake.
Looking south and west at the mountains above Diamond Lake.
I headed out onto a little island in the lake.
It’s quite the place.
A small tree clings to life on the rock that makes up the island in Diamond Lake.
On the island.
The water is extremely clear.
There were several large groups with lots of not very well-behaved dogs without leashes at the lake. Colorado’s front ranges are extremely busy. I am still getting used to so many people running around in the mountains. Further west there must be more room to spread out because we don’t have nearly as many people flooding into small alpine areas.
A little cascade coming down a talus chute.
The sound was really beautiful from the babbling cascade.
We finished out the day with a drink at the Very Nice Brewing Company in Nederland before stopping for dinner at the Sundance Cafe. The view there is absolutely outstanding. Nearly 180 degrees of continental divide is visible from the outdoor deck. This picture doesn’t nearly do it enough justice.
It was a nice day with a good little hike. Hopefully we can get another hike or two into the mountains before the snows hit and require more advanced gear to access the high country.