Sunday Jun 28, 2009 at 16:04

Roxborough State Park

Roxborough State Park

Roxborough State Park had one of its infrequent sunrise openings on Saturday morning. Alice and I camped out up the road at Chatfield State Park in order to be nearby and avoid too early a drive down there for 5am.

Roxborough features the same foothills sandstone seen at Garden of the Gods farther south near Colorado Springs (and also, for example near the mouth of Sunshine Canyon here in Boulder). The red of the stone (especially under the rising sun) contrasts wonderfully with the lush greens of Fountain Valley at this time of year.

Lyons Overlook

Some of the best views are seen from Lyons Overlook, a short ten-minute walk from the visitor centre. If you ignore the wooden viewing platform, there are plenty of interesting foreground rocks (in a much lighter sandstone – the three hogbacks are all of different sandstone types).

The sunrise was only partly cooperative. We enjoyed a one minute burst of red light just at sunrise, before the sun disappeared behind some clouds off to the east for the next twenty minutes (see the difference between the two shots above).

Roxborough Yarrow

I found the plant above by the trailside near Lyons Overlook on the way the back to the car. The sun had just risen over the eastern-most hogback, so this was shaded by my kneecap…

One of the best aspects of the trip – we saw our first wild black bear, a large male that has apparently been hanging around for the past couple of weeks. Despite the fact that he hung around for a good 30 minutes at no more than a hundred yards or so, I still didn’t manage to get a decent image. Never mind, next time (hopefully).

Posted in Locations

Stephen · Sunday, June 28, 2009, 16:04 · Permalink

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