In Mountain and Meadow~Colorado Nature Close To Home

22 August ~ 2007

On my nature program last Thursday I walked the kids the long way around through the grove of Ponderosa Pines and around the meadow trail. I am used to timing my programs according to our pace on the trail - walk some, stop and talk about something interesting, maybe tell a quick story, walk some more, etc, until our two hours are gone and we have made a big circle back to the Nature Center.

On this trip we discovered bright purple blazing star in bloom and some elk tracks in the mud from the night before. We witnessed three deer running off through the meadow, and a shadow of a turkey vulture pass over the aspen grove we were standing in. I had them touch the sepals of Gumweed, and then smell their fingers. Gumweed (Grindellia) sepals are very stick, and when touched leaves you with a very sharp resiny fragrance. (not sure how to describe it; you have to experience it). Later I had them smell the dried flower stalks of Beebalm. It has such a strong minty aroma that after I lean down and put my nose to the flower, its fragrance is pretty much all I can smell for hours. I explained that 200 years ago there werent pharmacies, and the native people knew how to use the plants for medicine. Both Gumweed and Beebalm were used as antiseptics by Native Americans. Beebalm was also used to treat nasea.

I find it very hard to talk to a large group on a narrow trail, so out of necessity I occasionally move off the trail so they can all hear me. While I was doing this a girl noticed first a grasshopper in the grass, and then a Preying Mantis. I dropped what I had been planning to talk about, and caught the Preying Mantis and showed it to everybody, then told some facts about the mantis - how most of them have a single cyclops ear, on their abdomen, which they use to hear Bats flying around an echolocating. They hear the voice of the bat and avoid getting eaten. I handed it to their teacher so I could photograph it. She put it down in the grass and the children watched it climb away over mountains of vegetation.

The children were tired when we got back, partially because it is summer break and they are active everyday. I have a suspicion that they would like to sleep late and hang around home once in a while, but that is hard to do when your parent(s) have to work. I am sure my daughters felt the same way when they were growing up.

I ended the program by telling them that the one thing I want them to remember is that every day has its own special beauty, and by going outside and watching you will see it. I also showed some pictures I had in my backpack and talked about how lucky we are to live in Colorado. I thanked them for being such good listeners, and good hikers, that I can tell they will be mountaineers when they grow up.