South Valley Park was not our destination, but....

Ha! I suppose that could be the title of any of these posts if we simply inserted the name of the place we ended up in. Gary and I do a lot of meandering. Spontaneous is what we do best. It's a good thing too because we are not planners. At least not with our down time.

On this particular day, we had decided to take a drive through Deer Creek Canyon. It's one of our favorite scenic drives. Along the way somewhere, we came across the scene above and a pull off for South Valley Park.

Colorado is chock full of these gorgeous little scenic parks with trails. We haven't “done” one yet that was a disappointment. Most of them contain an “aha” moment or two. Some contain thousands of photographer's dream scenes. In South Valley Park, there were so many that I had to reign myself in, as always, just so that I could enjoy the experience of the day.

We started up a bit of a slope in this forested area and immediately encountered some friends of the non-human variety. I didn't get a shot of the fox or the coyote we saw, but look what was hiding among the trees. Can you see the little family?

Colorado translates to “colored red” in Spanish, I'm told. And it's no wonder. Red rocks are everywhere, although there are areas with varied landscapes as well. South Valley Park was red all over. Even the trail paths were of typical Colorado red clay.

Here's the big guy up close.

We also had the privilege of walking beside views like this.

And this.

And up sloped trails beside rock formations like this.

There's another shade of red rock in South Valley Park. Next to the red clay rock, it's my very favorite. I love the marbled look of it. It often forms cave like crevices, which appeals to my inner explorer.

If you ever see branches blocking a path, along a Colorado trail (or any other trail, I suppose) it's a subliminal hint to keep out of the area the path leads to. In this case, it was a trail leading to the cave opening above on the right. I imagine this was to prevent injury.

Just before the sun began setting, we came across this cool branch “snake” that I deemed snap-worthy.

Check out this cool dude taking a break next to the scary branch snake.

 

And then, there were these guys. Not the greatest pictures, but a wonderful part of the trip, nonetheless. We run into huge herds on occasion too. Once we were lucky enough to film elks locking horns in such a group. 

As you can see, these deer were in the parking lot, so we were almost back to the car. But Colorado had other ideas in the form of a spectacular sunset that prompted us to head back into the park for a grand experience. Plus, you know. Pictures. I took a crap ton of them to be sure I would get at least a few shots to remember.

I think I did OK.

This one was when the sunset first made an appearance. It was a small fraction of what was to come. 

Once I took that shot, I turned around and saw this.

Then, I turned again and there was all this.

  I swear, you guys, I must have taken 50 pictures of that sunset. Here's a few more.

We looked back one last time. Our hiking day ended with this view in our heads.

And of course, as usual, we got to drive home through even more of colorful Colorado. It really does live up to the name, doesn't it? Love my home state more than words can describe!