Blackmer Loop Trail the other way

It was cloudy this morning, and we were mesmerized reading the news online, but this afternoon the clouds cleared out and we had a  few hours of nice weather. Rather than get in the car and drive to a trailhead, we decided to hike the Blackmer Loop Trail the other way from the direction we hiked it on Sunday. We enjoyed it on Sunday and we enjoyed it again today.

Can you find the deer in the meadow? There were actually three deer munching away, but I can only find one in the picture.

Lunch spot.

View from the bench. This picture was in the blog on Sunday but this time from a better angle that shows the tree growing out of the rock. It's a Ponderosa Pine and these trees have a very long root system.

Cheyenne Mountain

Neat the end of the loop there was a tree that had come down and someone had fashioned a "Hobbit" bench from the stump.

We've identified these wildflowers as Utah Sweetvetch based on the shape of the leaves. 

Today's hike:

Length - 5.31 miles

Duration - 2 hours, 26 minutes

Elevation gain - 591 feet (58 floors on the Fitbit)