Snowy Range Road

40 miles West of Laramie, WY (click on photo to enlarge). Still tons of snowpack up here, worrisome for those living along the North Platte. In Saratoga, the river was already well over its banks and had shut down the "Hobo Hot Springs."

Video Hike: Medicine Bow

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Curt Gowdy State Park

Another great state park, just outside of Cheyenne. Altitude 7000 feet. Click photos to enlarge.

Arthur's Rock

Many of the best natural areas we have discovered are state parks, known largely to locals only and thus less crowded. Lory State Park, just north of Fort Collins, Colorado, is a prime example.

Arthur's Rock is a relatively short but steep climb up to 7000 feet, a small price to pay for such a spectacular view. Click on either of the panoramas to enlarge.
We have only one week left in Cheyenne, but are avid to get in a couple more hikes before we head up to Gillette for the rest of the summer.

Vedauwoo, Turtle Rock(y) & Bullwinkle

Well, we've been in Cheyenne a few days and have acclimatized to the altitude. The people here are very friendly and the work is interesting--plus, it's good to "back in the saddle" after 5 weeks off.

We had a short day at work, so were able to sneak out to Medicine Bow National Forest just outside of Laramie. We hiked around Vedauwoo (pronounced "VEE-duh-voo"), an area renowned for its beautiful granite formations.

Principal among these is Turtle Rock, which attracts free-climbers and bouldering enthusiasts.
Although we've certainly seen our fair share of moose in MN, we've never had a male let us get so close for so long as this young bloke we saw munching grass along one of the back roads of Medicine Bow.

Monteverde Video Hike

We were originally looking to get a photo of the long-tailed manakin , and never intended to get so deep into the bush-- or to do a video hike. We did get the photo, and also ran into a troupe of white-faced coati, the ubiquitous agouti, but fortunately no vipers or fer-du-lance.

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Carara National Park, Quepos, Manuel Antonio Park

Carara National Park lies between rain-forest hills and the (seasonally) drier coastal plain. This well-preserved "transitional" forest harbors a great diversity of animal life for its modest size. What was striking to us was how much more prominent reptiles were here than in other areas we visited-- including this eyelash viper below that had ensconced itself in the hinge of the ladies latrine!
The Pacific Coast around Quepos is fairly rocky,

but our resort, Arenas del Mar, had two great sandy beaches . . .
. . . along with lots of colorful tropical land crabs . . .
. . . and iguanas of varying size (who, incidentally, like to eat tropical land crabs).
After trudging through a variety of ecosystems looking for birds, we decided to take a break and go for a boat ride and a secluded swim in a lagoon inside Manuel Antonio Park . . .

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. . . and of course ended up doing some more birding (female frigate birds roosting, below, a sight rarely seen on the mainland) . . .
. . . and at the oddly patriotic rock that makes up one of las gemellas, or "twins" . . .
. . . we saw these lovely bridled terns and a brown booby.
But it wasn't all birds. We did see a few dolphins . . .
. . . and more than a few white-faced capuchin monkeys to say adios as we departed.