Colorful Morning Hike–Mueller State Park, CO

Mueller State Park is about 28 miles into the mountains from Colorado Springs. Covering 5,121 acres with ponds, rock outcropping, mountain views in every direction, and amazing aspen groves, a walk this time of year will be spectacular! Grab your water and get ready because we start our hike at about 9,650 feet and it will be a down and up huffer puffer as we drop 500 feet to Preacher’s Hollow and Never-Never Pond. We’ll take it slow because the thin air at this elevation will take its toll on us both!

We visited Mueller State Park last autumn and hiked to the highest point in the park. I have never hiked any other trail in the park so this will be an adventure for us both. There is haze from the fires in northern CO and southern WY, but not too bad today. Can only tell viewing long distances. See the Sangre de Christo Range barely visible in background at right? Well, thankfully no smoke smell today. That pointy tallest mountain mid picture is Mount Pisgah standing at 10,343 feet. I know Bob Ross told us to never paint mountains as pointy triangles. He obvious never saw Mount Pisgah!

We are hiking a loop trail today. We’ll start on Rock Pond Trail #5 for about a mile then turn east to visit Preacher’s Hollow, Trail #4, to Never-Never Pond. That name doesn’t hold a lot of promise for beautiful reflections, but we’ll see.

The aspens are just glorious!

Wait a minute, it sounds like a jay, that squawk of a call, but more raspy. Ah, there he/she is, a Clark’s Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), a member of the Corvidae Family (crows, ravens, jays, and magpies). They are high-elevation birds living year round in subalpine pine forests throughout the mountain West. I saw them in Yellowstone and Montana’s mountains.

Fascinating birds. They use that dagger-like bill to dig out the large pine seeds from the cones. During the summer they bury thousands upon thousands of seeds for food throughout winter. Studies proved they have remarkable memories and remember where to find most of the buried seeds. Even in harsh winter weather, they may have their young as early as January or February because of the caches (winter storage) of seeds they easily find. Seeds they do not find or collect play a critical role in growing new pine forests.

Leaving the Nutcracker to harvest seeds, we head down the trail enjoying a quiet, very tranquil morning surrounded by gold.

This is a serious set of stairs taking us down to Preacher’s Hollow.

Halfway down the stairs we look back. Ah, with sun on our backs, the sky is beautiful.

Most of the shrubs and flowering plants are already in their winter attire.

Here we are in Preacher’s Hollow, looking left . . .

. . . then looking right. Bit of smoky haze in this lowest point of our hike. Let’s rest here a minute before we start back up 500 feet.

We have seen some huge aspens on this walk. Commonly called Quaking Aspen (Populus tremula) they can grow 80 feet tall but typically have very slender trunks. The largest trunks are about 2.5 feet in diameter. I think we have seen some that big today.

Aspens typically grow in groves as clones, all growing from the same long lateral root. A cloned grove can consist of a few trees or over a hundred, each genetically identical. The grove trees will grow, all be the same height and size, thrive and/or struggle as one, and die as a group.

Why are they called quaking aspen? Glad you asked . . .

We have not seen many rock outcroppings but this one is missing a few huge “escapees” that came to rest along the trail’s edges. Some are bigger than me! The Orange Rock lichen (Xanthoria elegans) on the lower left rocks adds to the autumn beauty.

Looking into the dark, shaded woods, just had to walk deeper into the forest. It had the look of an Eastern forest, but not the feel. After all, it is a high-elevation Colorado forest with few mosses, no dampness, no coolness, but lots of shade from mostly pines, firs, spruce.

The grasses form beautiful golden swaths along the forest’s edge.

Hmmmmm . . . here we are at Never-Never Pond. No reflections today–duh. From the depth of the pond it probably only fills with winter snow-melt water. Must visit again next spring.

Let’s stop so I can take my coat off and reorganize my pack. Wait, what’s the shadow that just flew over? No bird call, but . . . wow, it is only about a foot over my head. Just came down to eye level in the tree I was leaning against. So close I can’t get a picture right now. Just so you know, I talk to birds that come close and seem to pay attention.

I’ve always known this as a Gray Jay (Perisoreus canadensis), but in 2018 the American Ornithological Society voted to change the name to Canada Jay. They are also high-elevation year-round residents, widespread across Canada; but in the USA they primarily live in Maine, around Lake Superior, in the western Cascade Mountains, and the Rocky Mountains in MT, ID, WY, and CO.

These jays are extremely curious exploring new sights and sounds in their territories. They are also called camp robbers, continually looking for food, all kinds of food including handouts from humans and food they can steal. No food on this walk, but it might be drawn to my bright red shirt. As I talk with him or her, it “talked” back with a soft chatter that changed tone and almost mimicked my word phrases and pauses. I’ve seen Gray Jays often in Yellowstone, but never had a conversation with one. He/she stayed with us for over 1/2 mile, taking time to get close, chatter a bit, and move along with us. What a wonderful encounter!

Another huge aspen along the trail.

See Pikes Peak, the furthest muted peaked range through the trees? Means we head east for a while.

We just took a sharp switchback to walk back to the hike’s start. Nice to be up around tree-top level. Back at the trailhead, let’s find a picnic table and have some lunch.

As we have our lunch, a Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) is having his/her’s. These Jays are known as generalist foragers meaning they will eat anything including your lunch if you aren’t paying attention. This Jay was picking at the pine cones on the ground, not the least interested in us.

Steller’s tend to live in evergreen forests at elevations between 3,000-10,000 feet. The interior-habitat Jays have white eyebrows and forehead streaks. The lower elevation and coastal birds have all black heads. I like our’s better, what do you think?

One more glorious stand of quaking aspens before we head home. WOW, gorgeous gold across the mountains and along the trail, close encounters with three different members of the Corvidae Family, calm and quiet all along the trail. Who could ask for more on a beautiful autumn day!

I challenge you to get out in your neck of the woods–then slow down . . . and look around. Until next time my friend . . .