Hiking Adventures: Deer Creek Canyon Park

This past weekend I was very excited to take advantage of the awesome weather and go on my first hike of 2013!

The day started off on a high note with a caribou who was grazing around the parking lot.

You know I am a sucker for a wildlife encounter =)

I swear, the pictures does not do this justice.  She was literally right next to the car!

I decided to do the Meadowlark / Plymouth loop - as suggested by this hand dandy hiking site:

Deer Creek Canyon Park is located right next to Red Rocks, so it was pretty cool to hike and see the amphitheater and crazy rock formations.

You have to zoom in, but you can see the city skyline through the hills!  There are also some really cool rock formations all over the place - they looked fake, like from a Hollywood movie set.

The famous Red Rocks Amphitheater!

I was a little disappointed that the hike was shorter than advertised.  My gps watch clocked me at about 2.8 miles and the hiking site said it was 3.5 miles, but it was still a great "starter" hike to kick off the season.  Polly at least enjoyed herself =)

Such a beautiful sky!

I had to get a shot of this.  People have a hard time believing that Colorado has close to desert conditions in the foothills, but it's really true!  We are super arid and even though we get some snow in the winter, we have cactus all over the place.  Check out this "little" guy that I almost stepped on:

Evergreens and cactus.  I love our climate =)

Come out to visit and I'll take you on a hike!