Silver Cascade Falls

Above Helen Hunt Falls is Silver Cascade Falls.  When the water is running high, there's a wave that comes out from the rock face, as shown here.

Here's a black-and-white shot of the stream just above the waterfall.

A different trail leads to the bottom of the falls; don't try to climb down the rocks near the waterfall.

And finally, a shot of the wave from beneath.

Helen Hunt Falls

In one of the brief breaks from rain this weekend, I went up to the North Cheyenne Canyon area and hiked around a couple of waterfalls. First up is Helen Hunt Falls, easily visible from the road (a picture of this waterfall was in my first blog post). Here I'll show a couple of different views.

First, a view from the road. A hiking trail leads up and over the bridge visible on top; that's the way to the top of Silver Cascade Falls, which will be a separate blog post.

This is a closeup of the base.

Here's a view looking over the edge from the bridge at the top.

As I was there, some fighters flew overhead, for a Memorial Day event.

Close Lightning Strike

I just photographed an amazing lightning strike near my house. It hit a tree across the highway from me and I caught it on the camera. I was close enough to literally see the pine needles explode off the tree.

Here's a crop of the tree from the above photograph.

It was quite loud.

Dinosaur Ridge

Very close to Red Rocks is Dinosaur Ridge,where many years ago, road construction revealed dinosaur tracks, which are now clearly visible.

You can see broken shale in places as you're walking up the road.

Here's an Ornithomimus track.

And this one's from an Iguanodon.

Here's a series of tracks leading up the ridge.

All in all, it makes for a fascinating little diversion.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre

In the foothills West of Denver is a natural amphitheatre called Red Rocks, which hosts many events each summer. I've seen many rock concerts there, including bands like the Allman Brothers Band, R.E.M., Phish, Crosby Stills & Nash, Neil Young, The Police, Yes, Jethro Tull, and many others. It holds about 9,500 people and is considered to be one of the greatest outdoor concert venues in the country.

Here's one of the approaches to the amphitheater, as the path winds up and around the rocks.

And here's a view from that path.

Here's the view from the stage. It's hard to tell but the rocks are huge. Performers love playing here because they see something different than the typical arena view.

A couple of pictures of the main rock formations that surround the seating area.

And finally a view of the stage from the middle of the seating area. Downtown Denver is behind the ridges.

Palmer Lake Reservoirs

We've had fog and drizzle for a couple of days, but it finally cleared off this morning. So I went for a hike, this time on the Palmer Lake Reservoirs trail, as shown on the first picture looking back towards town.

As do a lot of these trails, this one climbs into the mountains next to a pretty stream, which is currently flowing with some strength because of all the recent rain and snow.

After a little while the trail runs by the first reservoir.

And it continues to climb to the second, larger reservoir.

There are numerous little streams running into these small lakes.

And it's clear that they don't want people in the water!

As I type up this post it has started raining again, so I'm glad I got out this morning.