Oil Well Flats Hitchhiker

Hitchhiker #4 with Beads



I think this is the 4th Hitchhiker I've made; this time I added beads.







This yarn is very special!  This yarn was hand dyed by Andromeda Sock Yarn especially for my local knit shop "Yarned & Dangerous".  This yarn has a pretty cool story too.

I was at my local yarn shop and the owner, Ann, was excited to tell me that the Indie Dyer from Andromeda Sock Yarn was willing to hand dye yarn especially for the shop. Ann asked if I had any suggestions and I did. I said that I thought it would be cool to have yarn with colors that reflect the geography of our local area... the places where I love to walk... the places that make our county (Fremont County) so unique and special.  I suggested places such as Skyline Drive, Tunnel Drive, and Oil Well Flats.  I even sent some photos from my recent hikes in the areas to Ann and I think she might have sent them to the yarn dyer.

A few weeks later, Ann announced that the yarn was in and I raced to the shop and snagged two hanks.  This yarn is called "Oil Well Flats", which is a place north of Canon City, Colorado.  It's a great place to hike and mountain bike.



Here are some photos of the Oil Well Flats area from a hike a few months back. I think the colors in the yarn reflect the colors in the Oil Well Flats area very well.  What do you think?

Snow Day

Yesterday was a beautiful snow day.  We woke up to over four inches of snow that clung to everything.  We went for our walk with the dogs down at the riverwalk (we live near the Arkansas River) and it was beautiful and sunny for the first part of our walk. As we were walking through the canopy of trees, it felt like we were inside a snow globe.  As the sun was warming the snow on the leaves, snow was falling all over the place and the snow streaming down looked gorgeous in the sunlight.  The second half our walk was totally different. Fog moved in and it got colder.  The remainder of the day was pretty much foggy.  I am pleased I got out and snapped these pretty photos to share while the sky and landscape was so pretty.

Since it was a cold and foggy day, I got a lot of knitting done.  I am working on a new pair of socks. I'll show a photo of that soon.





In the photo above, you can see a small white speck in the sky above the tree. If you zoom in, you can see that the white speck is the moon!

Mother's Day Hike

This park is just a few minutes by car from my house. Believe it or not, when we first moved to Colorado... this was the dump... now the heaps of trash have been covered and reclaimed.


I think this might me my favorite photo of the day!

CLICK ON EACH PHOTO FOR A BETTER LOOK.

We celebrated Mother's Day today since I have to work tomorrow. Talked my son into going for a hike with me, as a friend (Tracy) had shown me some flowering cacti the other day and I really wished I would have had my camera then. Snapped photos along the way today. Just before we found the cacti I had seen with my friend, Ginger noticed a vulture in a tree. He was eating a snake. Ginger remarked it was sort of like the Mexican flag. We snapped photos of the bird and then he flew off.

You can see town in the distance. Pikes Peak is just out of view.

The pale shale rocks are a nice backdrop for this yellow bouquet of wild flowers.

These cacti are resilient... growing out of a crevice in a steep wall of rock.

In the 18 years we've lived here, I have never seen flowering cacti like this! I feel fortunate to live in such a beautiful area.

Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch from a distance... I was amazed I could spot it from so far away. (Click on photo to enlarge).

Here's a "zoomed in" look. Now I bet you can see it!

Some more photos from Moab

Snow on the peaks in the distance in early morning light.


Broken Arch.


Clouds shortly after sunrise.



I enjoyed these metal sculptures at the Visitor's Center at the entrance to the park.




Early morning light.




We enjoyed hiking here.



We learned these pools of water are teaming with life which lies dormant when the water dries up.

Balanced Rock. Our last morning in the park was cold, windy, and cloudy.

Great early morning light.

Back from vacation

The morning sun was nice... I like the dried foliage in the foreground.

Just returned from a Spring Break family vacation. Spent time in Moab, Utah, and Las Vegas, Nevada... a little country life and a little city life. We decided we are more Moab people and not so much Las Vegas people. As Dorothy would say, "there's no place like home!" and we are SOOO happy to be home. They say, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"... well, the bathroom scale doesn't agree! I tell ya, it's difficult to eat healthy when you are on a road trip like this. I started eating french fries in Grand Junction, Colorado en route to Moab (the grilled chicken sandwich I ordered was terrible... but, boy-oh-boy, the A&W rootbeer and fries and the fried shrimp my son couldn't finish sure were good! It was all down hill from there!). I ordinarily don't eat fried food, but I made up for that over the past several days! My body has let me know it doesn't appreciate the change in diet, so today (in addition to doing piles of laundry), I stocked the refrigerator with healthy eats and spent the better part of the day cooking up a storm. In case you are wondering, I did not knit the entire time I was on vacation; however, I did spend a bit of time crocheting! I will post more about that later. I have so much to share about our trip so each day, I plan to to post a bit about some of the highlights over the next several days. My photos from the trip came out great and I am excited to share them with you. The Arches National Park in Moab, Utah, is amazing and it turns out March is a great time to visit! Let me start with a few photos and I'll post more over the next several days! I tell you, it's hard to takea bad photo in Moab... it's so beautiful there!


A pool of water in a rock... shaped like a fish.



One of the two "Windows."


Two "Windows" side-by-side.


Sand Arch.


Park Avenue.

A Great Hike!

Took a break from knitting to go on a great hike the other day. When we've been on this trail previously I've regretted not bringing my camera along. We started this hike rather early in the morning when it was cool and shady, so the lighting was not the best for photos, but I still got some good ones... so many that I had a difficult time deciding what to post. The first photo is a creek crossing. The water is but a trickle this time of year. There are about 17 or 18 creek crossings similar to this along the trail. The trail is over 2.7 miles up the mountain; 5.5 miles round trip. It's a great work out!




My photos are a bit out of order. At the top of the trail is an 1887 family homestead. The stacked rocks are all that remains of a stone fireplace. A family intended to log this area but their plans never came to fruition.



A nice jagged rock. Too bad the lighting was not a bit better!



At the top of the mountain, you find an enormous steam boiler and flywheel. (This appears to be the door to the boiler, where I imagine the boiler would be stoked with wood or coal?) It was brought here for the logging business. Just a few yards away is a patch of wild raspberries, although on this particular day the berries were all dried up. The raspberries are on some rather precarious ground right on the edge of the creek... difficult footing. We've been mindful to watch for bears when we harvested the berries in the past, although we've not seen much in the way of wildlife when we've been on this trail. By the way, the raspberries at the top of a mountain, growing wild along a beautiful creek, and after hiking 2.7 miles, DO taste much better than the berries at the grocery store. Imagine that!




I think this must be the "flywheel".



Sunlight on berries. Autumn is in the air for sure!




Three mushrooms in the shade. The lighting was poor so my camera automatically turned on the flash, which made the photo of these mushrooms look even better than in person!




Sunflowers... a nice end to a hike. Snapped this photo just before I got back in the car for the ride home. I am fortunate to live in such a beautiful area!