The trails aren’t in any of my hiking guides. They are on the flat high prairie of Colorado and are more pastoral than natural. The Denver freeway is just to the east.
But my apartment is just to the west. It’s the one easy hike from my apartment.
My Apartment Building and Green Mountain from South Campus
When my hike a couple of days ago so close to home on the South Boulder Creek Trail was such a success, I decided this morning to stay even closer. The undeveloped South Campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder is just to the east of the Tantra Lake complex.
A Pond on South Campus with South Boulder and Green Mountains
The Lake on South Campus
Mostly cows and smaller animals live here.
Some South Campus Residents
The main trail is a two-mile loop. But I usually add a lollipop down to the South Boulder Creek Trail. To me this is the best part because it’s full of birds feasting on the bugs in the marshy land there.I love to stand or sit and just listen to and look at the birds there. Here are three that I found today:
A Redwing Blackbird
Bird Eats
A Robin
Besides cows and birds, many more small creatures call South Campus home:
A Spotted White Butterfly
A Black Insect at the Lake
A Bluet
Yesterday someone saw me photographing some flowers or bugs. This is apparently something unusual on the Arapaho Pass Trail. She asked me if I were a biologist or a naturalist. I replied that I am a naturalist.
After all, I have been a member of the Sierra Club off and on for years. And I just joined and made a contribution to The Nature Conservancy, which is doing as much as any organization to save the planet. I want to help.
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