Monday, October 04, 2004
St Vrain State Park, Longmont, CO - Sept 21-Oct 4
This was just a continuation of our visit to the Boulder area. This state park (formerly Barbour Ponds) has no hookups, so it was not suitable for the time we needed a/c. However, once the weather turned cooler, we were able to save a lot of money, plus enjoy a much more peaceful setting by staying here (even though it is within earshot of I-25). Unfortunately, Doug had to start carrying water again! While talking to the head ranger one day, we learned that they will be "upgrading" the park next year and will be needing many more cg hosts at that time. So we have put in our application to be hosts there for late summer and early fall of 2005. That would be a good way to visit in the area and not have such high RV site rental. It is a lovely park, although quite near I-25, and we both hope that improving it will not ruin it.
On our last day here as we were driving to meet Bill & Becky for a birding outing, we saw what turned out to be an injured western grebe in the middle of the road. We stopped, and after moving it to the side of the road, decided it would be better to take it along, so we wrapped it up in a towel and headed off, now running late. Fortunately it was only a 10-minute drive, because after only 4 or 5 minutes the bird starting perking up (no doubt it had been in shock). Bill & Becky knew exactly where to take it, so after covering its head (it was now quite active), we all zoomed off. Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Sanctuary (www.greenwoodwildlife.org) happily took possession, saying they expected a full recovery. We drove back and began birding. We were rewarded by seeing our only "lifer" (first sighting of a species) of our stay, a Clark's grebe. That was quite a treat and we definitely needed B&B's wonderful spotting scopes to make a positive ID.# posted by Doug and Willie @ 6:34 PM 
