The Colorado State Open Thread is on any topic of your choosing. In my case this evening, I’m going to write about something I saw on the route down Highway 34 this morning, heading from Estes Park towards Loveland. I haven’t seen one in awhile, but I was alerted to its presence first by a truck heading up the canyon that was blinking its lights (a common means of alerting drivers to pay attention in the near future, and often in the mountains, it can alert to the presence of an animal of interest or that might be a hazard while driving. It also means that there may be an accident or other important item in my near future. The second item I noticed were the cars pulled off along the side of the road. It’s nice when drivers actually pull off onto the shoulders so as not to impede traffic (so long as that doesn’t just mean drivers will speed along and get into a wreck when they can’t stop in time for whatever is coming up).
A male Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
This fellow was hustling his little flock up the canyon wall. There were about six or so sheep that I saw, and, not surprisingly, about the same number of people who had slowed down to take a look at them. One fellow even had a huge telephoto lens he was wielding as he ran back and forth from vantage point to another vantage point across the road, trying to keep them in sight around various bushes and boulders.
Mmmm. Mmmm. Boy these dry grasses are tasty.
I took these with my Samsung cell phone. I keep telling myself I should keep one of my better cameras in the car, but when I do, I don’t seem to catch anything interesting.
Time to collect the lambs and get along up and away.
The quiz at the top of the story is actually grammatically incorrect. There isn’t just one state animal. There are actually eight that have that official title, in that there are a state mammal, a state amphibian, state fish, etc. I found the list at a-z-animals.com/… Colorado likes naming these things so beyond various animals, there are official state minerals, song, dance, etc, and the state legislature put out an official list of all things official in Colorado at leg.colorado.gov/…
For those of you new to the state (and for those like me who have spent decades here), you might have some fun browsing through the list. On my way back into Estes Park this afternoon, there was another traffic jam; this time it was for a good-sized herd of elk that was having some issues getting across Highway 36. The adults weren’t having problems, but this year’s youngsters were having problems hopping the split-rail fence and following the adults on their wanderings.
I don’t have much to offer this evening, so I’m hoping you might have some things you have found interesting around our square(ish) state this past week. Please feel free to add your comments down below. I’d like to hear about any holiday plans you have, or sightings of holiday spirit, depths of snow in your areas (up here we have had a few inches of blowing snow, but not much significant), or any political news you’d like to pass along. Fortunately, our western Representative seems to be keeping her head down for a few days at least.
The floor is yours...
