January 2 -- Randy and I walked the Tenderfoot and Longhorn Ledge trails at High Point park. A cloudless afternoon
gave us splendid light and (sometimes) enough warmth. He saw at least a half-dozen mule deer and two coyotes.

January 4 -- Walked with Randy and Oliver on Spruce Mountain. No spruces seen.

January 6 -- Visited Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, north of Denver.

January 9 -- Randy and I enjoyed Daniels Park, a unit of the Denver Mountain Parks located south of Highlands Ranch and near the Wildcat Mountain and High Point trails.

January 11 -- We walked in Glendale Farm Open Space Park, eventually joining with a real estate broker who was also birding.

January 13 -- We used watching 3 of Randy's grandsons as a great opportunity to revisit the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge; the boys threw sticks onto the ice of Lake Ladore.

January 14 -- On the way to taking Oliver back home, we hiked in the canyon created when Castlewood Dam broke in the 1930s, flooding Denver. HUGE boulders tumbled like pebbles, and the rush of water scoured the sides of the gorge. When it's cold enough, a bank of ice forms as water seeps from a layer of rock on one side of the gorge.

January 22 -- Finally, it snowed enough to stay a few days, and we enjoyed a walk around a local golf course with white all around us.

January 31 and February 3 -- We bought a state parks pass for the year and went to Roxborough S.P. twice, hiking first together and then separately.

February 6 -- My first visit to the Denver Botanic Garden near Chatfield State Park. Netted Irises were up and at 'em...all of maybe 2 inches.

February 8 -- That Colorado State Parks pass went to work for us again, this time at Staunton Ranch State Park in Jefferson County.

February 18 -- Hiked the Nighthawk Trail at Hall Ranch Park in Boulder County.

February 20 -- Wow, it snowed again...these are from our windows, as we didn't go anywhere.

February 27 -- I went back with a camera to the East-West Trail in the southern outskirts of our suburb of Denver; I was more interested in the landforms,
trees and vistas than in the large prairie dog community safeguarded, along with elk and deer, in this backcountry wildlife reserve.

March 3 -- Chatfield State Park's reservoir-edge cottonwoods showed us some past and fairly current beaver work,
and signs talked about a heron rookery, but the tree I saw had a wood duck or kestrel nestbox attached to it.

March 8 -- Another portion of the East-West Trail, accessed from Coyote Ridge Park and looking out over Wildcat Ridge's trails.

March 9 -- A pleasant ramble through South Valley Park's trails.

March 10 -- We accompanied Joel, Leah, and Ellie on a visit to the treed and rocky portion of the Gateway Mesa trail.

March 17 -- A neighborhood stretch-the-legs walk, during which we talked about where to go out for my birthday (yes, it's today).

March 20 -- We waited for some of the snow to melt away, and found clear paths and some flowing water at South Platte Park.

March 22 -- The Denver Botanic Garden's early spring free admittance day brought us to some glorious blooms.

March 23 -- Two hikes, one of which got recorded, despite the ferocious wind; this was at the reen Mountain Trail system
in Jefferson County, about a half-hour north of where we live. The other walk was a bit of a disappointment, although advertised
as the best dinosaur trackway in the country. Our more notable activity was climbing--and staying on, against the wind--the edge
of the uplifted, tilted Dakota Sandstone ridge where an exposed segment shows multiple rows of animal tracks.

April 2 -- A delightful solo ramble at Roxborough State Park. Randy went up a 3-mile trail while I wandered up another piece of the same
Dakota sandstone formation as above, but about a half-hour south of that one, and luxuriated in the sunshine among the ponderosa pines,
stunted and contorted by substrate chemistry, rock and wind.

April 11 -- We enjoyed the shady portions of Plymouth Creek and Meadowlark Trails at Deer Creek Canyon Park, and found violets,
sand lilies, larkspur, and candytuft in addition to acres of creeping oregon-grape.

April 17 to May 9 -- Randy drove his 33-foot RV to a nephew's farm in western Kansas, where we worked a lot, walked a little, and adapted to a little home on wheels.

June 6-15 -- We camped in 5 different mountain places, climbed a few upward trails, and took hundreds of photos in southern Colorado.

June 21 -- We enjoyed another day in the mountains, at Rocky Mountain National Park, with Randy's son and granddaughter.

June 30 to August 5 -- I drove alone via Pocatello, Idaho and then quickly across Nevada, to northern California, where Randy joined me
at my family's ranch in St. Helena. We traveled together to Felton, California to escape some heat, stay with his son's family,
and venture as far south as Big Sur on day trips before returning to the ranch. My work completed there, we left Napa County,
crossed California, camped at Rye Patch Reservoir, and arrived at Lamoille Canyon in Nevada. After two nights and several hikes there, we hightailed it for home.

August 12 -- Randy and I went up into the mountains to Mitchell Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness to try to meet relatives,
but they had gone on to the next lake. He didn't want to take me up the rocky trail to get there.

August 19-23 -- Again into the mountains, this was a 4-day whirlwind of going and doing. Mueller State Park,
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Michigan Creek, Geneva Creek, Chicago Creek, Silver Dollar Lake (from the number
of images, you'd think this one place had three days!) and Mt. Goliath (it was too windy for Mt. Evans).

September 1 -- Alerted to it by neighbors, we went to the Labor Day Lift-off of hot air balloons in Colorado Springs, an hour south of us,
to watch about 50 take to the air, then dip carefully down to touch the nearby lake surface before riding the winds
(more would lift during the 3-day event; I heard about a thousand altogether). We went off then to revisit Mueller State Park,
where we learned we had both inaccurately labeled some of our images from two weeks ago. Thanks to recent rains, we saw a few mushrooms this time.

September 7-10 -- We joined family in Rocky Mountain National Park, hiking to Bierstadt Lake, Fern Falls, and Roaring River.
Then Randy and I hiked two more days--Copeland and Calypso Falls on North St. Vrain Creek and Mitchell and Blue Lakes in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.

September 18 -- Randy and I explored a little of Golden Gate Canyon State Park before walking partway up South Boulder Creek
on the Rogers Pass Trail, stopping where it became suddenly very steep.

September 24 -- Randy took us over passes and up to ghost towns, in intermittent rain and even some snow. Loveland Pass,
Montezuma, Saints John, Boreas Pass...all glorious with still plenty of fall color in most places.

September 25 -- We opted for a hearty walk in the hills just above us at an open space park called The Bluffs.
I mostly added to my assortment of yucca images.

September 29,30 -- After a party near Red Feather Lakes, we ascended the Cache la Poudre River to reach Tunnel Campground,
named for the tunnel through the mountain that brings Laramie River water to the Poudre for the town of Fort Collins.
Our big outing was up the West Branch Trail that goes several miles further than we did to reach an assortment of lakes and other trails;
what with losing each other and backtracking up the mountain, we probably exceeded 11 miles. Next morning, we went up the hill
behind our campsite and found elk, bear, and mostly moose scat and several caches of quite old cut wood.

October 7 -- An afternoon at Roxborough State Park with heavy overcast gave us a fine loop trail to explore in different light than we've had there before.

October 12 -- A brilliant, warmish, and clear day following a spate of several days' rain and cold brought us back to the Bluffs at the south edge of Lone Tree.

October 21 -- Randy was absorbed in sorting coins, so we didn't go anywhere until nearly sunset;
I enjoyed attempts to capture him and what was happening outside my dining-table window.

November 1 -- While Randy worked, I walked along the westernmost reach of the Highline Canal Trail in southern Douglas County, Colorado,
going westward from Chatfield Park to an unmarked parking lot that might be the terminus. The trail stretches 71 miles, and this segment
was only about 5 (starting near milepost 7 and not seeing 2 or 1); I have a way to go yet!

November 3 -- An afternoon at the Denver Zoo with Randy, a son, and a granddaughter.

November 9-11 -- A train ride to Glenwood Springs and back to Denver, hot springs soaking, two fine walks, and several memorable meals,
all with family. My shots from the train aren't wonderful, given the window reflections and speed of travel, but they're still views we wouldn't get from the highway.

November 21 - December 10 -- A camping adventure of epic proportions for Randy and me. We spent these three weeks discovering state and national parks hither and yon along a fairly direct loop route from our Denver-suburb start to Big Bend National Park and back by a different path, picking up a multitude of sites in New Mexico and Texas, mostly within the Chihuahuan Desert eco-region.

December 17 -- Randy took his son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and me to Roxborough State Park for a counterclockwise walk of the partly-icy south rim trail.

December 30 -- Jared and Max told us they were going to hike the Cedar Gulch trail on Galbraith Mountain outside of Golden, Colorado, so we met them there and did it, too.