We never called my father’s mother Grandma, Oma, Farmor, or anything but Pearl. Growing up, she helped instill in Jerry a love for the outdoors. The grand-daughter of Colorado pioneer, David Barnes, Pearl’s early life ranged from Cheyenne, WY to Denver, CO and the mountain parks to the west. Having found White-tailed Ptarmigan on the first of two days we had allotted to Rocky Mountain NP, we decided to visit some of the towns and cities, we knew Pearl had called home.

A bout resulting from bad food in the night got us off to a late start so we had to skip the Lakeside Cemetery in Loveland where Jerry’s great-great grandparents David and Sarah Barnes and infant great-aunt Tottie Steacy are buried. David Barnes was the founder of the town of Loveland. In our 2009 roadtrip we visited the Loveland museum where his life is commemorated and his original home.

Instead we drove through rural Ft Collins along Buckhorn Road to the small town of Rustic. Along the way we drove with the windows down, ticking off and adding the different singing birds to our trip list. Due to our complete negligence we failed to take photographs along the Cache la Poudre – North Park Scenic and Historic Byway. It was to Rustic that Jerry’s great-grandmother, Maude Barnes, returned after the death of her father and her divorce to Benjamin Steacy to help manage the family ranch at Rustic.

Maude’s second husband, Abraham Lefever, operated a ranch in the North Park area of Colorado. North Park is a high elevation valley nestled between mountain ranges on the Wyoming border. In the 21st century, North Park continues to be relatively undisturbed. We had lunch in the only major town, Walden, in the region.

Although the afternoon was warm, we drove the auto loop at the Arapaho NWR, and added a bunch of water birds to our trip list, such as Sora, Yellow-headed Blackbird, and Wilson’s Phalarope. Most of these birds are the same we find in eastern WA wetlands. However, some the mammals were new to us: White-tailed Prairie Dog and Wyoming Ground Squirrel.

After leaving the Arapaho NWR, our route took us south and west of the Rocky Mountain NP to Georgetown, CO, where we spent the night and set up for Mt. Blue Sky.

Mount Blue Sky

We were able to hit the road early, and headed to the summit area of Blue Sky, formerly Mt. Evans. The highest paved road in the United States ends just below the 14,272 foot peak. Our target for the day was the Brown-capped Rosy-Finch. The area requires a recreation reservation to enter so we knew we would see mostly crowds later in the day and headed directly for the top.

Just before we reached Summit Lake, Lorna spotted a rosy-finch on the snowbank next to the road. Having not a great place to stop, we headed to the Summit Lake parking lot a short distance up the road. There a cold, steady wind did not encourage us to get too far from the car. However, we could hear rosy-finches calling down from the snow covered slopes around the lake. This is the spot where many birders come from around the world to see the Brown-capped Rosy-Finch as it’s summer range is limited to the alpine areas of the central Rockies.

Seeing how as the parking lot at Summit Lake was nearly full first thing in the morning, and the blast of cold air was exceeding our limits, we decided instead of going clear to the top, we’d just head down the mountain.

Mt. Goliath Natural Area

Heading down also gave us more time to explore the gardens planted among the Rocky Mountain Bristlecone Pines at the Mt. Goliath Natural Area. Here the Denver Botanic Gardens have created assortments of wildflowers and other plants in more natural settings. This was our first experience with the pines, although Jerry had visited the Great Basin Bristlecone Pines in the White Mtns. of California. Although once considered the same species, the two have since been split by conifer taxonomists.

On to Chimney Rock…

From Mt. Blue Sky we headed east along I-70 through Denver, and then picked up I-76 in the direction of Nebraska and Chimney Rock, which we’ll feature in our next post…