Two Buttes Reservoir State Wildlife Area

The biggest difference I noticed between the High Plains Snow Goose Festival and the Monte Vista Crane Festival was that relatively few of the events at the Snow Goose Festival actually had anything to do with Snow Geese. At least, the two tours I took on Saturday didn't involve them at all. In the case of the afternoon drive to the Two Buttes Reservoir State Wildlife Area, that turned out to be just fine.

A couple of Parks & Wildlife staff accompanied us, and explained how two days of torrential rain last fall had burst a hole in the reservoir dam and resulted in a pretty dramatic flash flood.  I was surprised to see thick green algae growing on some of the slow-moving water during winter.

The rock formations were reminiscent of Moab, complete with desert varnish.

Blue skies and light winds give you blue water with clear reflections.  I'll take that any day.

The canyon was surprisingly dramatic and definitely unexpected in the middle of otherwise uniform prairie country.

It was these guys that really made the outing worthwhile.  I'd never gotten to photograph a porcupine before, and on this one-mile stretch of trail we saw four hanging out in the trees.  Apparently their predators don't expect to find a canyon here, either.

Cliff Swallow nests on the side of one of the rock faces.  A Great Horned Owl had a nest above them, and I assume it never had to travel far for a meal.

Dormant cottonwoods doing that awesome dead tree thing, shooting gnarled leafless branches in a jumble of directions.

The trail to the area known as the Black Hole was washed out, but that's where having CPW staff with you comes in handy.  They took us back there anyway, and it was easy to see why it's such a popular swimming spot for local young folks in the summer.  The water is apparently 60 feet deep in spots.

This shape on the far wall caught my eye.  I guess it's not a cave entrance, which would have just made the spot that much cooler.

More recent ruins.  The trailer had an equally decrepit washing machine inside it.

The birders in our group -- which was most of the group -- got very excited about a grosbeak sighting.  The bird apparently didn't really belong in Colorado this time of the year.  I missed the grosbeak, but shot this robin instead and was just as happy.

Spent a really terrific couple of hours here, but didn't actually get a picture of the namesake geographic feature!