Horsetooth

On Labor Day we hiked up to the famous Fort Collins landmark, Horsetooth Rock.   This is truly where the mountains meet the prairie.  I am always awed by the view.   The first mile of the hike was a bit rough.   A couple of the kids (boys)  thought they were going to die.  Every muscle in their legs was screaming, every breath was a struggle.  Neil and I practically kicked them up the trail with threats to enroll them in boot camp and throw away the wii!   But once their bodies warmed up they were fine.   We'll have to remember the warm up period next time so we don't get so frustrated with the lazy buggers!

It was an extremely windy day.  In fact, this was the same day the fire in Boulder started burning out of control.  We could see the plume of smoke, but didn't know what it was until we got home.  Emily caught a tumble weed, named it Tumbly, and carried it to the top of the rock to be released into the wind.

 Trying not to blow away!

Jeff has very keen eyes and found this walking stick on the trail.  It looked just like a piece of dried grass.  Finding this stick made the hike totally worth it for him.  He showed it to everyone he saw, and even after releasing it he told hikers to "Be on the lookout for a stick bug!   I just let one go back there!"