Denver in Blue

I was in Denver with a couple of hours to spare… and it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t walked downtown in years. There were plenty of reasons, first COVID-19, then the 16th Street Mall renovation project, not to mention parking headaches and crowds. Well, I decided it was time to change that. I grabbed my camera and headed out, wandering the streets and looking for what had changed.

 

Twist of weather...

Living here in Colorado for so long, you’d think we wouldn’t be surprised by its sudden mood swings. Just two weeks ago, the weather shifted dramatically - from warm and pleasant to full-on snow (click here to see that story - Two Days, Two Weathers…), ending with feet of snow covering the ground and flowers (click here to refresh your memory - Beauty of Snow...)... So why were we surprised again last weekend, when everything changed overnight? A beautiful, warm Saturday turned into a bitterly cold Sunday.

 

From flowers to wilderness

I left Denver Botanic Gardens, where I had spent a couple of hours looking at plants buried in snow (click here if you’ve forgotten what I found there - Beauty of Snow...), but decided against heading straight home. I was curious to see how much snow the plains had received, so I drove to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge to follow the Wildlife Drive. My first stop was right at the beginning, where I took a picture of my favorite trees just uphill :)

 

Beauty of Snow...

Last time I wrote about the crazy Colorado weather - when one day the sun shines brightly and the next day snow covers everything (you can find that post here - Two Days, Two Weathers…). On Friday, roughly a foot of snow fell across most of the area, and on Saturday I simply couldn’t stay home. So… you guessed it - I drove to the Denver Botanic Garden to see how much damage the snow had caused. Everything was covered with a thick blanket of snow. Everything. Leaves were poking through the snow here and there and, surprisingly, they actually looked pretty cool - bright patches of color breaking through the endless white.

 

Two Days, Two Weathers…

It was a surprisingly warm Thursday, so I drove up to the mountains to spend some time in the woods. Before starting my hike, I stopped at the Buffalo Overlook to see if the bison were around. And they were :)

 

Blooms in February...

Yes… it still feels a bit crazy that flowers are blooming even though it’s only the end of February. I had been watching them for two weeks (click here to refresh your memory - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), but back then they were small and hesitant, as if unsure whether it was really their time to appear. But last Saturday the flowers had no doubts anymore. They were growing confidently, looking as if it were already the end of March rather than the last days of February.

 

Birds, Mountains, Lake...

Early Sunday morning, I left my car in the parking lot and walked toward the lake. Just a few yards down the trail, I was greeted by a small group of house sparrows wandering about. The tiny birds were perched in the middle of a large bush, chatting to one another. It was such a pleasant encounter, they instantly lifted my mood.