United For Christ

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Hiking Big Meadows RMNP

Recently, we hiked the Big Meadows trail at Rocky Mountain National Park. I had read somewhere that it was an easy hike. I am still getting over my view of an easy hike. Coming from Texas, my version of an easy hike is like something we did at the Nature Reserve near Fort Worth. Here that doesn't even exist. Big Meadows really was an easy hike compared to many of the hikes in the park, but not compared to Texas hikes. Regardless of whether it was easy or not, the views were awesome. It was an uphill hike, through the forest, for about 1.8 miles. The last bit was down into the big meadow. The high mountain meadow was beautiful with a clear stream running through it. We saw two moose, squirrels and numerous mosquitoes. Round trip it was 3.8 miles. It is definitely a good hike for beginners like us.

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Summer at Rocky Mountain National Park

We have been to Rocky Mountain National Park 3 times so far this summer. Our favorite spot is the Alpine Tundra. This area is absolutely amazing! Here are some photos from our last visit. They were all taken in the Alpine Tundra, except for the picture of the elk. It was taken on Trail Ridge road on our way down.

map of the Rocky Mtn. National Park

Marmot (we also saw Pika)

Love these Mushroom Rocks!

The Life-Cycle of A Gulf Fritillary (another forgotten post)

I can't believe I never posted these pictures! This is from the summer of 2009. We had so much fun observing the life cycle of these butterflies. We also saw the many predators that were happy to have so many caterpillars and butterflies in the yard.

Mating Gulf Fritillary Butterflies

Butterfly egg on host plant

Host plant for the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly: Passion Flower Vine

This spider set up shop right by the host plant and enjoyed finding baby caterpillars to eat.

This is a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar that has reached full size and is ready to enter the chrysalis phase.

Chrysalis adorning our fence.

Hatching butterflies!

Transformation Complete!

Sipping Nectar from our garden Zinnias

Butterfly Predator: Preying Mantis

Where did October go? (another forgotten post!)

October has flown by! This year we have been involved in a local Soccer league, and it has turned out to be so much fun.

The boys have loved it and so have we. It has led to numerous games in the backyard with Mark and I proving that we are not as young as we think we are.

Our littlest one is now almost 10 months old. He is all over the place and if he can get his hands on a crayon he is thrilled.

How They Have Grown! (old post that I forgot to publish)

Lunar Eclipse (another old post that I forgot to publish!)

When I found out that the eclipse was going to be in the middle of the night, I asked myself if I really wanted to tell the boys. I knew that if I did chances were that I would be setting my alarm for a ridiculous hour and dragging myself out of bed for at least an hour. Yet how could I let it pass? Needless to say I set the alarm. We had a perfectly clear sky and it was a strangely beautiful eclipse.

I thought this picture of the boys captured their sleepiness and the cold. They were so cold, but very happy to have been able to see it. We also took a chance and called their grandmother to see if she had stayed up to watch it and sure enough she was watching.

Rainbow Trout- Outdoor Hour Challenge- July

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Rocky Mountain National Park in Spring (2013 Nature goals)

This post is a little late, but better late than never! One of our nature goals for 2013 is to visit the Rocky Mountain National Park every season. Here are some pictures from our late Spring visit. The boys enjoyed getting their Junior Ranger badges on this trip. They learned about the 4 ecosystems in the park. The riparian (wetland) ecosystem, montane ecosystem, subalpine ecosystem, and alpine tundra ecosystem. Last week we visited the park again. The primary difference that I saw was in the alpine tundra. Summer pictures coming soon!