First Hike of the Season!

Nothing restores the soul like getting out into God’s natural world. We finally got a nice Saturday that was not obligated toward other activities and took the opportunity to drive the  thirty miles to Vedauwoo and do some hiking and wildflower photography.  On the way there we passed groups of cyclists on the highway participating in the “Tour de Prairie.” We probably would have taken the interstate if we had known this event was taking place. The prairies are beautiful this time of the year as the grasses are green and the flowers are profuse, yet we wondered if the riders really get to enjoy the beauty as they have to watch the road and be aware of traffic all the time.

Once we turned off onto the gravel road that takes us to the trail head parking area we stopped to try to capture the abundant wildflowers especially the orange to red Indian Paintbrush that is Wyoming’s state flower. Look carefully in my photo of Mr. photographer (you can also double click the mouse on any photo to see more detail) and you can see little bits or orange all over the landscape. In the distance is the ridge that we climb to an overlook on one end of the Headquarters trail.

We also drove around to a couple of the picnic areas to check them out and decided that they were too  swampy yet as the snow is still melting and the runoff is high. There were tons of mosquitoes and we forgot to put on repellant before we left. We were glad that we had long-sleeve shirts and long pants on so our bites were limited to our wrists and hands mostly.

The trail goes up through aspen groves  and a stream where Penelope invariably cools off in the muddy water. Then it goes into the pines which even though hit hard by the beetles is still cool and shady for the most part. Then the trail climbs the ridge and emerges onto a meadow  through a wood fence and there is a beautiful overlook out onto the prairies. The rock outcroppings are colorful chunks of eroded granite. On the trail we passed some horseback riders, mountain bikers and other hikers including a group of about eight back packers that had probably camped out overnight.

We used to always keep Penelope on a leash but now we just let her go free and she stays with us pretty well. She does go ahead on the trail and then comes back to check in on us frequently or if we call her. She also swerves off the trail to sniff out critters in the bushes. She must cover three times the ground that we do on the same trail and she never walks only runs. Pretty good for a ten years old dog!

At the overlook on the north face of the rocks was still a large snowpack melting, more than we can remember in the last few years. Thus the flooding that is occurring all over Wyoming and the plain states.

We enjoyed our picnic lunch and the sights and fresh pine smells on the hike. There are many kinds of yellow flowers and some white, blue and vivid purple ones in addition to the Paintbrush in bloom. Besides the mosquitoes the only other downside was that I dropped my camera and we had to backtrack about ten minutes to find it, before continuing on up to the overlook. The exercise was good for us no doubt.

Lou