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Pawnee Buttes
Pawnee National Grasslands, Colorado
August 26, 2006
Distance: 7.6 km (4.7 mi)
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 111 m .364 ft)
Our first stop on our trip after driving from Calgary was the Pawnee National Grasslands Park northeast of Denver. The 5 km hike provided a chance for Dinah and I to see two buttes set in the grasslands as well as a chance to stretch our legs. The buttes are nothing more than unscalable piles of dirt. I was hoping to see pronghorns or rattlesnakes, but neither appeared. Nonetheless I found the landscape fascinating.
Pawnee buttes from the trailhead
Starting down the trail. The yucca plants (foreground) had needle-sharp points.
There are plenty of unfamiliar flowers (mouse over for a close up)
Most of the plants had thorns (mouse over)
This cedar tree seemed out of place in the landscape
The west butte
Prickly pear cactus
Delicate flower
This ant adds another stone to an anthill (mouse over)
Approaching the west butte
I walked around the base
The clay slopes were too crumbly to scale
Looking up the butte
The east butte
A closer look at the east butte
We came back a different way