One a previous trip I was driving east through Southern CO on 160 and just after the town of Kim i spotted a series of info panels in the middle of a completely unmaintained pull over. I decided to stop there to picnic. The grass was growing up and it was difficult to decide where to park so i pulled right up to the kiosks. It had a map showing an auto tour for the Comanche National Grassland as well as panels on the geology, nature and fossil rich natural history. Clearly the service made some effort to make the public land assessable but i have the strong sense few people ever go there. There rarely a car speeding by on Highway 160 and that was usually a pick up indicating local traffic. Anyhow, the location stuck in my mind and I am here again with time to explore.
The grassland is directly west of Cimarron in the south east corner of Colorado. The secret treasure inside is Carrizo Canyon. Although it is not a spectacularly deep gorge it is not a dry canyon either. It has a series of quiet pools and marshes and contrasting with the rocky surroundings makes it extremely spectacular in its own right. At a picnic area there is a trail traversing the rim rock around some of the pools. You can see some cool ancient rock art as well. Here i started honestly trying to tell the difference between Western Kingbirds and Cassin’s Kingbirds. Generally traveling the highways i always assumed I was looking at Western Kingbirds until I stopped even considering Cassin’s having never seen one for sure. There are only subtitle difference in their coloration but here there are definitely Cassin’s which lack the white strips at the side edges of their tail. That is the one feature easiest for me to focus on.
Some of the other birds I added to my trip list were Blue Grossbeak, lesser goldfinch, lark sparrow. And eastern Phoebe? What was the Phoebe doing here? Well they do like nesting on rock walls even though in PA we often associate them with the nesting in picnic shelters and other out buildings. They are not so common out west but they are common enough here to mention them on the info board. So that spoiled the surprise of actually seeing one for me. The lesser goldfinch were little, cute, yellow, numerous, and visibly immersed in their own world on antics. They would make good minions.
I was hugging the canyon bottom and its greenery as I worked my way up and seemed to miss the official route turn but that was ok as I eventually figured out where I was and the new route took me to some fabulous places. The road went up out of the canyon where you could see the surrounding bluffs and as I surmounted one I spotted a pair of roadrunners that lingered around a while for me to watch. Moving across a plateau I noticed a heard or antelope running away because they had already seen me. I stopped and watch with binoculars as they hustled and then finally stopped about a half mile away To look at me. I counted at least 13 animals. Then they started working their way up another canyon at the edge of the next line of bluffs. Not long after A short eared owl appeared on a post by the wayside.
I spent the whole afternoon in the area around Carrizo Canyon and did not see another soul even driving another vehicle. Though maybe there was a ghost lurking around the one shown above. At dusk I was out and traveling west on 160 Where I went by the same info kiosks I had stopped at in the past. The sky was full of drama by this point with a growing number of thunderstorms in the distance And the setting sun throwing spots of light and Colors Visible in all directions. There was barely any traffic so i could really take in the experience.