I Spy on the Trails - October 2024

One small area of the Big Kachina petroglyph panel 
in Bears Ear National Monument

October has been full of travel hikes. So I have been watching the trail sides in Colorado, Utah, Madison, WI and along the North Shore of Lake Superior with only a few brief hikes in the Driftless.

I’ll share a few observations and thoughts in each travel region. 

House on Fire Puebloan granaries
Bears Ears National Monument
The name comes from the unique way the sun
reflects off the overhanging rock.
Image - Linda Pole

In UT, CO and NM, we arrived at the peak of the aspen color season as well as before the cold hit other trees and plants. Our hikes were centered primarily on Ancestral Puebloan and Chacoan cultural sites and geographical features of the Southwest. We took advantage of opportunities to go on interpretative hikes that expanded our knowledge of the culture and peoples who inhabited and thrived on the land long before the appearance of Europeans. While our eyes were dazzled by the incredible geology, our minds were swept away by the petroglyphs, buildings and exploration of the ancestral and modern cultures of the Indigenous people of the region.

To my delight, in Bluff, a small community in southwest UT, the highway welcome sign says “Bluff Utah, Founded 650 AD". We seldom see communities acknowledge the precedence of indigenous ancestral people. I found great meaning in that simple statement of fact.

Image- Nola Larson

Back home in the Driftless, I took advantage of the high fall leaf color time and slightly cooler temps to hike up bluffs and mounds for great views with no sweating! My biggest surprise, during these climate-change-fueled, lingering above-normal temp days, was a friend's discovery of a blooming Jack-in-the-Pulpit on a trail in Hixon Forest (WI).  It was a sobering testament, along with unseasonably warm temps so far into Oct (70F on 10/28/24 and 82F on 10/29/24) to how our climate is warming

Just-past-dawn hike at Pincushion Mtn
to a gorgeous outlook - Grand Marais

Along the North Shore, there were still some patches of beautiful colors despite the forests being past peak. My hiking partner had badly sprained his ankle so we alternated driving adventures together with my solo hikes. 

I did all my hikes at the crack of dawn to leave time for afternoon adventures. I was alone on all the trails, and at outlooks and viewsheds. It was wonderful to find that level of solitude in parks and trails that are busy even in the off-season. I treasured that experience. 

With Lake Superior and the amazing geological formations everywhere, I didn’t need flora or colorful leaves to dazzle my eyes. I was a truly happy hiker.

What are YOU noticing on your hikes?

A month of hikes:

Hikes below in bold color or underlined have links to previous posts OR descriptions/location of the trails found online

Walking through a series
of underground storage areas
Aztec Ruins Nat'l Monument

Bluff, UT & Bears Ears National Monument

Butler Wash - Big Kachina Panel and River House

Butler Wash -Wolfman Panel 

Mule Canyon -House on Fire

Aztec NM

Aztec Ruins National Monument 

Chalk Mountains and aspens
San Juan National Forest

Pagosa Springs, CO

San Juan Mountains National Forest

Piedra River Trail

Piedra Falls Trail

Opal Lake Trail

Pagoda Springs Riverwalk

Chimney Rock National Monument

Madison WI 

Pope Farm Conservancy

A "keyhole" peep at leaves and sun through
massive rocks in Levis Trow Mounds
Image - Lavon Court

Driftless Area

Great River Bluffs State Park, Nodine MN

Upper Hixon Park, La Crosse WI 

Levis Trow Mounds, Black River Falls WI 

Dawn at Temperance River-Carleton Peak SHT trail

North Shore of Lake Superior

Pincushion Mountain, Grand Marais, MN

Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, Two Harbors, MN

Temperance River State Park, Schroeder , MN

Rock scrambling to Wolfman's petroglyph panel
in Bear's Ears National Monument UT
All my Driftless bluff hiking paid off!
Image  - Lee Coveney

The "I Spy on the Trails" column is a phenology (the study of seasonal changes in plants and animals) journal to chronicle year-round the weather, plant life and wildlife I observe while hiking. It is very useful in helping me compare observations from year-to-year. The column is published monthly from September through April and then twice-a-month from May through August when warm weather brings the natural world back to vibrant life.  

Images, unless noted - Marge Loch-Wouters