Corral Creek Trail

Note: I had this written yesterday, but the pictures went all pear-shaped and I was too tired to fix them.

The hike was longer than expected. I opted for the "loop" option, which seems to add at least two miles to the 4.5 mile length. Not sure of the exact amount. Anyway, it was a beautiful hike through pine and aspen forest, and wildflower meadows. Even up in the mountains it was a bit warm, though there were cool spots deep under the trees. Anyway, I saw a whole bunch of mourning cloak butterflies. None of them felt like holding still for a picture, though. I saw a shrew, as well, unless there was a mouse with an extra-pointy snout. It also ran away too quickly for a picture. I did get a picture of a weird beetle on a fallen aspen:


I also got a picture of a woodpecker:












And this is the end of the actual "Corral Creek Trail":

You can't quite see it in this picture, but at the top of the hill, there's a weird...staircase thing made of rebar. On the other side of that is a road that (eventually) takes you back to the main highway. Why did I go that way instead of retracing my path? Well, there are several reasons.
(1) Curiosity - I would have spent the rest of the day wondering what lay down that road. As it is, there were several branches going the "wrong" way that I didn't explore, so I'll have to go back and take care of that sometime.
(2) Practicality - The trail was rather muddy and slippery in several spots. Going up was quite difficult. Going down seemed like a good way to break something. I probably could have managed it safely, but the idea didn't enthuse me.
(3) Walking surface - the trail has not been maintained since the winter thaw from the looks of things, and parts of it are just deep, angled channels (some dry, some still wet). Rather difficult to walk on. The road was much MUCH easier in that respect.

And though it added quite a bit of distance to the overall trek, I wouldn't have seen the woodpecker or heard the frogs if I'd just turned around and come back down the same way.

I've also got a whole bunch of flower pictures, but I'll put those in a separate post. Or posts. Eventually.