Camping in the Cold

During the second weekend of September, Nikki, Steve, Eva, and I all piled into Steve's over-packed car and drove two-and-a-half hours south of Denver to Spruce Grove Campground, which is at a higher altitude than Denver, as it's in the Rocky Mountains, near Pike's Peak. It was a tiring but pretty drive, with some of the aspen leaves already transitioning into their autumn yellow, but it would've been A MILLION times better if Eva hadn't whined and whimpered THE ENTIRE WAY DOWN. Seriously. I thought Nikki was gonna leap into the back of the car and strangle the dog!! I don't know when Eva developed a dislike of riding in cars, but she was quiet for only maybe fifteen minutes the whole time.

A rare quiet moment. Note the crazy eyes.

When we finally arrived to the campsite, we discovered that, while it was idyllic, it was also a walk-in site, which meant we had to park the car and carry all our stuff over a bridge to the site.

View from a little hiding spot behind the campsite
that Nikki had to go to because she was having an anxiety attack
and needed quiet.

After the tiring trip, we decided that before setting up the tent, we were gonna chill on the nearby riverbed with Mandy and Camden and Mandy's friends Allison and Andrew. Allison brought her dogs Gonzo and Trixie, so there were several pups all running around and vying for our attention.

Relaxin'...like I do.

Trixie is the black dog, and Gonzo is the little one.

The gang. Andrew is in the chair in the background,
and Allison is in the blue jacket.

Eva, acting crazy as usual

A little later, Nikki and I decided to hike up the mountain (for lack of a better term) and climb on top of this giant rock formation right next to our campsite. The climb was steep, but Nikki said that the climb to Hanging Lake (check out her pictures starting with this one) was waaaaaaay worse and longer. Now, I'm not really scared of heights, but standing on top of a giant rock that towered above the whole valley was kinda making me nervous. As such, I made Nikki not take any pictures of me; I didn't want my fans to see me freaking out. :p

View to the right of where we stood on the giant rock.
We couldn't find a way to get to the lake from the campground.

View from the backish part of where we stood.
The space inside the red box is our campsite!

View to the left of where we stood. This is the rest of the campground.
I think Pike's Peak is one of those mountains, but I don't know.

For a while, Nikki laid down on the rock and just looked at the sky and listened to the Christian youth group down below perform slam poetry about Jesus and finding their future wives. (I'm not joking. We couldn't hear all of it, but it was hilariously awesome and very earnest.) Nikki wanted to take some "selfies" (formerly called "MySpace photos," but that site barely exists anymore, so someone made up this new name, which is a shortened version of "self-portraits"), but it's REALLY hard to do with a fancy camera like her Nikon D3000. These are the best out of the ten or so she took:

Steve's favorite. He thought it was hilarious.

Nikki's favorite. At least you can see the mountains in the background.

Obviously, Nikki's arms are too short to do a selfie properly, and she won't let me touch her camera, since I have the tendency to break her things by accident. :p

Eventually we climbed down and joined everyone else. Cam and Steve had gone snake-hunting in the river, and Camden actually found a snake!! Nikki didn't get a picture of it, unfortunately, but Andrew did. If he ever sends the pictures to Mandy, I'll add them here. It was a garter snake and kinda big too. The other kids playing in the water were SUPER excited, and Cam was proud to show Steve that he had found a snake.

On the hunt with his trusty net

The rest of the night went pretty typically. We set up a campfire, cooked hamburgers (except for Andrew, who keeps kosher, so he brought some "boil in a bag" Indian food), and Nikki read a zombie story that she had started during the last camping trip. Camden LOVES ghost stories but gets scared easily since, you know, he's 6 years old. Mandy likes listening to Nikki tell the stories because Nikki does voices for every character. We stayed up chatting then went to bed.

Like the first time we went camping with Eva at West Chicago Creek,she and Steve took up most of the room on the air mattress. Only this time, THEY STOLE ALL THE COVERS TOO!! We had our usual set-up of two flannel sleeping bags, the comforter, and two extra blankets, and Nikki and I got a sliver of one of the sleeping bags and that's it. I woke up at one point and noticed that Eva was actually under the blanket Nikki had been using!!

Somehow, we survived the night and spent the morning packing up the campsite. (Well, Nikki and Steve cleaned up the campsite. I don't do manual labor.) Eva was shivering, as it was still about 40* outside, so Nikki tied her hoodie around Eva, as no one could find Eva's dog sweater before we left to go camping. Eva would've appreciated it, I'm sure, were she not super uncomfortable in it. Camden, however, kept Eva calm by petting her and talking quietly to her.

The Dog Whisperer

Nikki offered to drive home, since Steve had driven all the way down. Eva still whined, but much less than she had on the way to the campsite. We stopped at a Safeway in a small town to pick up some breakfast food. Nikki got a burrito for herself and a bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich for Eva. After having such a heavy meal, Eva DEFINITELY calmed down.

While we were driving back, Nikki pulled over to take a picture of a sign she had seen the day before. It was a "point of interest," as the sign said, but the part that stood out to Nikki was a bunch of white rocks that spelled out a giant "YOLO." YOLO stands for "You Only Live Once," and according to Nikki, it's only used by "idiots on the internet and teenagers." [Nikki Note: The link takes you to UrbanDictionary.com, which is a great resource for finding out the meaning of slang words, but is user-generated, so it contains adult language.]

Dang kids. Pretty good prank though, if you ask me.

This is the real reason why this location is a point of interest: it's a historical site that used to house Native Americans of the Ute tribe. Of course, it's kinda lame to look out at a place with fields and a pile of used tires and a small gold mine and think "Native Americans used to live here until settlers moved in and kicked them out." I'm not gonna get into it, but I'll just say that I think the Utes got a raw deal.

It's hard to read the text on the board, so I recommend
going to the website I linked above.

This point of interest was located just outside of Florissant, Colorado, which is a small town that's claim to fame is the Fossil Beds National Park, where people found a TON of fossils in this lake bed. (We didn't get to stop here.)

(More info on the Ute Indians too)

The other big deal about Florissant is that they're a part of the Gold Belt Byway, which we *also* didn't get to see. [Nikki Note: We had a psycho dog in the car. I wanted to get home as quickly as possible.]

 

 

You can *almost* see the little gold mine that was there to the back right
of where I'm sitting.

So that was our trip. Not super exciting, but at least it was really pretty and we got to go camping before it REALLY gets cold out! Nikki has also sworn that Eva will NEVER go camping with us EVER again, as it's too stressful for everyone involved. Maybe next time we go camping, then, I'll actually get some blankets!

An Armadillo on the Prairie

Since July, Nikki has been volunteering every few Saturdays at the Plains Conservation Center in Aurora, a city/suburb southeast of Denver. She wanted to meet more people and become more active in her community, so while looking for cool volunteer opportunities in her area, she stumbled upon this place. You should TOTALLY visit their website and read all about what they do and who they are. It's pretty awesome. Also, read this article from the Denver Post to see what someone who's a little less biased thinks about the PCC. (Note, it's from 2011, so a lot's changed since then. Also note: the author incorrectly called the animals in West Bijou "buffalo." See below for why that's awful.)

The PCC (as she calls it) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving prairie lands, which used to be what Denver and the areas that AREN'T mountains all used to be. You know the book Little House on the Prairie? Well, it turns out that that book is really historically accurate and tells it like it is as far as what life for homesteaders was like. (In September, I'm hoping to visit the replica homestead the PCC has on their property so I can show you how cool it is!) Turns out, a lot of prairie lands have been sold to developers and turned into housing complexes (especially the lands near Buckley Air Force Base, which by the way, is where President Obama lands when he visits Colorado) or roads or cities or strip malls. This is super sad, because there are a ton of animals that call the prairie home, and if they can't live on the prairie, well...where CAN they live? It's not like anyone wants rattlesnakes staying overnight with them!

Nikki raved about this place so much that I decided to tag along one day when she was volunteering at the Visitors Center. I learned SO MUCH about the prairie that day!

This is the left side of the Visitors Center when you walk in the front door.

This is the right side of the Visitors Center when you walk in the front door.

This sign above is really cool, in my opinion. It's a timeline of the prairie and the people who made the prairie their home. One of the people who works at the PCC said that the book in the right-hand corner (The Worst Hard Time) is one of the best books to read to learn about the Dust Bowl and that whole, unfortunate time in American history.

On the day I visited, the head volunteers (Audie is in the blue. He's REALLY enthusiastic and energetic. Lee is in the orange. He's much calmer and a good balance to Audie.) were getting ready for the next day's day camp activities. The kids were going to participate in a murder mystery (!) where, at the end of the trail, they'd find a PRONGHORN SKULL AND SPINE (!!), which the staff have named "Percy." (Nikki told me she's seen it before, and her first reaction was "EW EW EW!") We were trying to get all the clue cards and journals and supplies in order before the big day.

One of the things we needed to do was use plaster of Paris to make molds for animal tracks. No one was really sure how to do it, though, so Audie and Nikki experimented a bit while Lee read directions. Their first attempt turned out really nicely...once Lee dug it out of the dried plaster with his knife!

It's a turkey foot!

Eventually, Audie figured out how to make the tracks more efficiently, so Nikki and I went back to taking pictures and talking with the visitors who stopped by to explore. So many of them lived near the PCC but had never really known it was there! So we showed them around the visitors center, gave them a map of the grounds, and gave them a calendar of summer events so they would know what cool stuff was going on.

Allow me to give you a tour!

Me in our mini replica Cheyenne teepee! I'm just hanging out with some cool, new friends who live on the prairie.

Look! I'm a pronghorn!

Fun fact about pronghorns: unlike deer, pronghorns have "horns" NOT "antlers." Pronghorns have these bony protrusions coming out of their skulls, and the horn grows on top of that. (From the website linked in the last sentence:) "Pronghorn have branched, hollow, hairlike horns that are shed annually. They are the only animal with this combination"

Creepiest. Exhibit. Ever.

The PCC is all about displaying various pieces/bodies of dead things. (*sigh* Nikki Note: They're for educational purposes, as it's much easier to learn about an animal when it's just pieces or stuffed than when it's charging at you maliciously.) They have whole collections of antlers, horns, skulls, feathers, scat (POOP!!), and fur for people to look at and play with. (You obviously don't play with the poop. Ew.)

Another dead thing at the Visitors Center. It's a hawk. Nikki wanted me to include this picture because she thinks it's really pretty. (Click on the picture to see it full-sized.)

Staring down a prairie dog

Never having lived on a prairie before, the only prairie dogs I've ever seen have been in zoos. I never realized how many could live in one area until I visited the PCC! Oh my gosh! They're everywhere! On the drive onto the property, we passed probably a hundred prairie dogs (Nikki Note: This is an exaggeration, although there ARE a lot of prairie dogs along the driveway towards the Visitors Center.), and they were all running around and "barking" at us. So weird. Learn more about prairie dogs here: Prairie Dog Coalition. MY favorite fact about prairie dogs that I learned at PCC is that their burrows are more like condominiums than holes in the ground! They have "kitchens" and "bathrooms" and "bedrooms" and "living rooms," and they keep their prairie dog condos really clean. If they ditch a room, sometimes someone else will move in.....

From top left to top right: ground squirrel, rattlesnake, prairie dog

From middle left to middle right: rabbit, mouse, black widow spider

From bottom left to bottom right: burrowing owl, salamander, hawk (which I think just eats the prairie dogs)

One of these animals does NOT live in a prairie dog burrow. Can you guess which one? ;)

The beanbags above were part of a cool game the Center had set up for kids (and parents!) to help kids learn what other kinds of animals could live in a prairie dog's home. I don't know that the younger kids really got the message, but they sure had fun throwing the beanbags!

In addition to all the dead things that the PCC has in the Visitors Center, it also has some LIVING things too! They've got a rattlesnake, a bull snake, a hognose snake (too shy for a photo), two box turtles (also too shy for a photo), and a salamander (the state amphibian!).

Lift up the flap to see the answer!

The PCC's rattlesnake has (what I think is) a funny origin story: a man came into the Visitors Center holding a shoebox with air holes poked in it and duct tape securely fastened so the lid wouldn't fall off the box. He asked an employee if they'd take in a rattlesnake. The PCC person agreed, but fairly alarmed, asked WHERE he had gotten a rattlesnake and HOW it had gotten in the shoe box! The man said that he went into his young son's room and under the bed, he found a shoe box. Opening it up...he saw the rattlesnake! How the little kid captured something that can kill you with one bite (or at least TOTALLY ruin your day) is beyond me and everyone else who works there.

 Okay, so maybe I'm just sensitive because I'm usually a prey animal in situations like this, but dude just looks EVIL. Look at those eyes! He looks like he's gonna eat me! (Nikki Note: The rattlesnake is in a secure tank and cannot eat anyone visiting the Center.)

 The rattlesnake's shed skin

Wonder who it could be?! (Other than Nikki, who is an actress.)

The bull snake!

Now, I know this isn't the greatest angle, but seriously...this dude doesn't look ANYTHING like a rattlesnake! For one, he's not evil-looking. BUT! He DOES eat hawks (well, in the wild he would), so that's pretty badass.

My favorite thing in the Visitors Center is DEFINITELY the bison head they have mounted on the right-side wall:

I know it's a "dead thing," technically, and I was all "ew, dead things" earlier, but he's so fuzzy!

One thing the PCC people are really particular about is NOT calling the bison a "buffalo." They look totally different and don't even live in the same place!! Bison are in America and Europe; buffalo are in Asia and Africa. In my humble armadillo opinion, bison are way cuter anyway. The PCC's new property on West Bijou Creek (which you can only visit during scheduled times) has its own herd of bison that will actually come up to you and feed out of your hand! I'm hoping that we get a chance to visit it soon. In the meantime, check out these photos (click "older" to see more pics) from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science of a group that got to visit the property and check out the K/T boundary. (Follow-up to the article about the K/T boundary. I'll have to ask Steve more about it, as both of the articles are old.)

Lastly, the PCC Visitors Center is home to their "Donation Sheep" where patrons who had a particularly good time can donate some cash or change to the Center to help them keep up all their awesome work.

Won't you make a donation? The sheep says she feels so empty inside...

Hugs & Hisses, or "Hisses & Kisses" as Nikki Kept Calling It

For Valentine's Day, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science hosted "Hugs & Hisses," an event for adults after hours that showcased their new Lizards and Snakes exhibit. They were gonna serve booze and talk about SNAKE SEX and let grown-ups walk through the exhibit without a bunch of kids running around screaming and hogging all the best space to look at the reptiles. It sounded like a GREAT TIME, so OF COURSE Nikki wasn't originally going to bring me. ;p But she tweeted to the Museum and asked if I could go, since I'm "underage." After linking to this blog to clear up who I was, whoever tweets for the Museum said that I should totally go, so Nikki brought me along. And it's a good thing she did because....I GOT RECOGNIZED BY A BLOG READER!!! OMG, it was so exciting! We were hanging out towards the end of the event, and this guy came up to Nikki and me and said that he had discovered the blog through Nikki's friend Jared's blog A Bad Case of the Dates, and could he get a picture with me because "it's not everyday I meet a celebrity." [Note from Nikki: ABCOTD is a great blog, and a lot of fun to read, but long-term following WILL cause you to lose faith in humanity. Just a warning.]
 

My fan!! His name is Terrence, and he's absolutely awesome. :)

Now, y'all may remember that I'm a big fan of snakes, especially as I have two snake sisters and a snake brother living at home with me. So I was pretty excited to be able to go to see the exhibit, as best expressed in these pictures below:

And me with my "brother" Alejandro:

(Sorry it's blurry. Steve is TERRIBLE at taking pictures.)

I was heartbroken to discover that we couldn't take pictures inside the actual exhibit. There were SO MANY photo opportunities! Like the emerald tree monitor who was named "Nikki"! Or the GIANT anaconda! Or the tank full of geckos! But alas, no photos were allowed in the exhibit. So just take my word for it: you NEED to visit this exhibit. :) However, they have a photo booth where you can get your picture taken with Bo, the giant python. Nikki and I took TWO photos in the photo booth:

The first picture is with Steve, and I'm getting "eaten" by Bo while Nikki looks on on mock horror.

The second picture is with some friends we made through the DMNS Tweet-up: Casey, Lisa, and Lauren (from left to right).

After strolling through the exhibit a few times and taking in all the lizards, snakes, and facts about reptiles, we watched a performance about all the different ways that reptiles show THA LAYDEEZ that they're ready for sexy times. The emcee asked the crowd, "Ok, I need two guys who want to impress the ladies," and Lisa called out, "Why can't *I* impress the ladies?!" Everyone laughed, and both volunteers turned out to be women: Lisa and another young lady. Their reptile foreplay action was FLEXING:

"Quick! Get a veterinarian! Those pythons are SICK!"

They then impressed the ladies by doing push-ups, which apparently, super-cute little lizards do. Lisa was in a skirt, so push-ups were a bit impractical. The other woman did the push-ups...then someone pointed out that her blouse was hanging a bit low and, ah...providing a very different kind of show for the audience.

Fun Science Fact: Reptiles do NOT have mammaries!

We ended the presentation with a conga line, presumably to demonstrate how snakes shake their rattles and get all twisty and dance-y to attract mates. Or just because making adults dance in a conga line after drinking booze is funny.

Casey and Nikki shake what the Good Lord gave 'em.

Everybody...CONNNNGAAAA!!!

Us and the emcee, who was showing off his dewlap. Rowr!!

We also attended a lecture (a.k.a. "World's Largest PowerPoint") in the Imax theatre about reptile sex. 

The scientist leading the lecture was SO AWKWARD! You could tell he wasn't used to talking about this particular topic in front of so many people. We couldn't help but giggle. And when one of his slides was a close-up of a reptile's hemipenes (male genitalia), you better believe every "adult" in that place took a picture of it and posted it to their fave social networking site! (Including Nikki)

After the lecture, we bummed around for a while and met some of the animals that the Humane Society brought in.

Casey makes a friend!

Steve contemplates fostering a python. Because why not have even more snakes?!

I have NO IDEA why there was a stuffed capybara at the reptile event. It was on a table with a bunch of other dead, taxidermied rodents and bugs. Steve says that the display was of animals that snakes eat for food. I said, "Well then, what the hell is a capybara doing there?!" Steve pointed out that an anaconda could eat one, but they don't live in the same place. So...guess it's still a mystery.

All in all, it was a great night with awesome people, cool reptiles, and an EXTENSIVE cheese buffet!