Alderfer/Three Sisters Park

Hike day took us up to Evergreen for a visit to Alderfer/Three Sisters Park. Many thanks to Taryn for this week's intro photo.

I can't decide if this is a Colorado Alpine or Small Wood Nymph, but these guys were by far the most abundant butterfly here. And not much for sitting still to have their pictures taken.

UPDATE: Friend of the program Mike Fisher settles the issue -- "That is the Small Wood-nymph, Cercyonis oetus charon. A little higher up in elevation and you will find the Common Alpine, Erebia epipsodea in moist meadows, mostly above 8500 Ft. in the Front Range."

Taryn made it about 20 steps before deciding she already needed to eat her cereal bar.

The area is an interesting mix of meadows and forested rock formations.

The park is made up of a lot of small trails. Of course, I didn't look at the map closely enough to take any that actually brought us by The Three Sisters.

The view to the west, possibly with Goliath Peak in the distance.

I've been reading the Chronicles of Narnia to them at night, so they pretended they were King Peter and King Lucy and took turns leading. That's right -- KING Lucy. She was very insistent on this point.

The view to the east from the Homestead Trail.

A female Mountain Bluebird, I think. At least, that's what I'd expect to see on Bluebird Meadow Trail.

It looks like Zak's photography training last week paid off after all. Solid reproduction of his shot from Lookout Mountain.

A very light 1.6 miles done in about an hour and a half. I didn't want anything too long, but I could have put together about two miles worth from the other parking lot and gotten to The Three Sisters and The Brother. Hey, there's nothing that says we can't go back!