I took this picture Sunday, September 13th but when I began to add my title to the blog I discovered it was printing in Hindi. After becoming frustrated with trying to change it I gave up until today. Cooler head prevailed and I was able to understand the help advice someone posted on Bloggers FAQ. We left Fort Collins to drive up to Red Mountain Open Space to retrace the hike I had done in the moonlight in July. It was easy to see why the open space is named Red Mountain. Almost everywhere you look the soil is red. Some of the areas have sandstone and quartz, but the red predominates. Although I would have doubted it (during the moonlight hike) the trail is just over 2 miles and is a wonderful trail for someone like me who has been spending too much time on the couch. It makes a loop from the parking lot through the canyon in the picture to The Big Hole, then around the south ridge and back to the stream. The stream is still flowing which makes the stepping stones across the water welcome. The weather was perfect for the entire hike, with clouds moving in to bring some rain as we drove back to Fort Collins.
On the way back we saw this stump which looked like a pump from a distance. It was positioned on a somewhat hollowed out slope next to the trail.
On the way back we saw this stump which looked like a pump from a distance. It was positioned on a somewhat hollowed out slope next to the trail.
Some pictures of Red Mountain from the July hike before the sun went down are posted in my Flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/27063931@N05/3749062117/ 