On Monday, we hitched up the RV and
headed for the redundantly named State Forest State Park. We stopped
at the Moose Visitor Center and asked where to see moose. We had
booked a very nice campsite looking out over North Michigan
Reservoir, with a great view of the mountains. The campground is full
of hunters with their off-road vehicles; we even saw one group with a
small chest freezer on a trailer. We took a short hike to the other
side of the lake. We drove around in the evening, all the way to
Walden, hoping to see a moose, no luck. We did see a unique storm
cloud, lit by the sunset. Richard had lived in Colorado forty years,
and never seen a moose, even though he often visited this area.
North park, Jackson County, has only
one town, Walden, population about 800. The valley or park is
surrounded by mountains; the valley is mostly sagebrush, although
there are wetlands, lakes, and Arapahoe National Wildlife Refuge.
The primary businesses appear to be large cattle ranches, fishing and
hunting. It is officially the moose capital of Colorado.
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Cabin seen on hike
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Tuesday, we stopped at the Yurt
business, and met Suze, a local character. We learned that the yurts
have outhouses and no running water. We started at the visitor
center, and hiked five miles round trip in the direction of Ranger
Lakes. We continued to look for moose. The occasional rain helped
us decide to turn around, and we made it back to the car without
getting too wet. We had lunch at the River Rock Cafe in Walden,
which was full of hunters. After lunch, we visited the Pioneer
Museum, which is a large museum full of donated objects of all kinds,
including the projectors from the movie theater, now defunct. The
museum is a history of the pioneer families of the valley, and a
better than average museum of its type. On the way back, we saw a
storm cloud dramatically lit by the sunset. Richard took a nap, and
we got some great photos of a rainbow. Richard went fishing in the
evening, and caught an 8 inch rainbow trout.
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| More ducks than you can count |
Wednesday, we bought safety orange
clothing, since it was hunting season. Then we drove to the Arapahoe
National Wildlife Refuge, where we met the manager and only employee!
She luckily had a group of volunteers during the summer months. We
took a nature hike along the Illinois River, and then drove the auto
tour loop. Each pond in the refuge was full of many species of
migrating ducks, which Richard struggled to identify. Unfortunately,
we had not brought our spotting scope. We came back, Richard took a
nap, Richard fished for an hour, had some strikes, and Sandi finished
her book. At sunset, we went for a drive to Cameron pass, where
several people had mentioned there had been moose spottings. Just
east of the visitor center, Sandi saw a large brown spot in the
willows. Sure enough, we had seen our moose.
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| A moose! |
Thursday we drove home
