Colorado, USA
We have not been up the Poudre Canyon or Rist Canyon or Buckhorn Canyon since the 3rd of June this year because of the devastating wildfires. The High Park Fire started June 9 and most of Colorado and the surrounding states have been on fire the whole summer. Saying that it was a gorgeous day just does not do it justice. Spectacular might be a better description. Today, the skies were as clear as we have seen them in a long time.
It was sad to see the charred acres and trees but the Poudre running black just about broke our hearts. Mother Nature will take care of all that eventually but there are parts of the countryside that will not recover its former glory in our lifetime. It's easy to see that mudslides in some areas will now be an issue. So far, the season has been dry.
Slide show of the ride up (part 1)= 78 photos
We were lucky today. There are moose in the Cameron Pass area and we were lucky enough to see a beautiful bull moose on our way up the canyon today. There's nothing like seeing one of these majestic creatures in the wild.
The best shots of the moose I could get with my little rinky-dink camera (14 photos)
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We stopped the progression of the ride at the Moose Center. This is a usual stop for us. Sometimes we picnic and then ride on up to Wyoming. Today we roamed around, had a cup of thermos coffee and since the winds were already up, decided we would ride back down the way we came. This is one of those rides that is great to backtrack - and we love riding the river. On the high end the waters were running much clearer. On the way down we decided a stop at Glen Echo for lunch sounded like a pretty good idea. My BLT was really good. Tim said his burger was really good. That's really no surprise - we have never had a bad meal at Glen Echo. The establishment is always clean, even on the busiest of days and the staff is always friendly and efficient.Just past Stove Prairie Landing we turned south on Stove Prairie Road (#27) and surveyed the considerable burn damage in this area. We continued on through the Buckhorn Canyon area deciding against riding Rist Canyon which we know got hit really hard by the fires. At Masonville we turned east again and road over the "tooth" - Horsetooth Reservoir before calling it a day. A really nice day.
Slide show of the ride down (part 2) = 63 photos
Alternative link to this slide showToday's ride = 164 miles
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