In this episode of the OutThere Colorado Podcast, Spencer and Seth chat about fires raging around Colorado and the three firefighters who were killed, a wolf crossing I-25, how a new study may indicate moose are native to Colorado after all, a very interesting plant that's thriving, tensions related to a stunning lake that could become the next state park, the prettiest alpine lakes to visit this summer, more bucket list items, a rescue in a vault toilet, and more.
[00:00:05] Welcome to another episode of the OutThere Colorado Podcast. I'm Spencer, here with Seth. Hello. We got Tim over there on the video and the audio for today. And once again, a lot of fun Colorado things to chat about. How was your weekend, Seth? I got some cool things to talk about from that weekend. Let's run them down here. So I went and walked around. My dog's a wuss, as I've told you, so I can't take her on all the hikes I want to do. So I always have to think about, alright, what's a place I'd like to go see but is easy to get around?
[00:00:35] So we just did a quick little day up in Woodland Park. Oh, nice. Monument Lake. Kind of a little hidden gem off 67 there. It's a fee area. Got to pay 11 bucks to go in there. But a really pretty lake with great views of Pikes Peak and just kind of gently walks around the shore there. And this big white bird catches my eye. And I'm like, that looks like a pelican. And I do a little search. Yeah. My wife had a little bit of a bird.
[00:01:05] It has the bird search. Yeah. So take it for what that's worth, right? And as far as identifying it, the American white pelican. Dang. Did you know there's pelicans in Colorado? I've heard stories of them coming through sometimes, but I've never seen one. There's like four or five of these pelicans up around Monument Lake. Really? I had no idea. We're talking like above like 9,500 feet, right? Huh.
[00:01:28] Now, again, they look like a pelican. This app said they are a pelican. So take it. Take that for what it's worth. But yeah, I've got it on my phone. Yeah. This photo, man. I'm reading here. I'm reading here. They're seasonal residents. Okay. They come to Colorado's lakes, inland lakes and reservoirs for feeding and breeding before migration to coastal wintering grounds. So that's fascinating. I'm glad you actually did the confirming that I have still never done. Yeah.
[00:01:57] But yeah, pelicans in Colorado. Mentioned here on the Colorado Bird and Drill website. All right. That sounds official to me. So that was one wildlife sighting. On Sunday morning, hiking around Palmer Park. People are familiar with Palmer Park. You know, kind of this mosaic of woods and bluffs. Yeah. Colorado Springs. Yeah. And Colorado Springs is a very wild place right in the middle of the city. Mm-hmm. Walking around and lo and behold, bobcat up on the rocks. Oh, bobcat. Luckily, I did not bring my dog. Yeah.
[00:02:27] I left the dog at home because she's a wuss for this one. But yeah, I saw a bobcat. I think it was my first time seeing a bobcat. But bobcats are always fun to spot. Yeah. You've spotted one out in the boat. We'll get them in the neighborhood. Will you? Yeah. Very rarely. But if you're out, like those early morning runs at like 6 a.m. or so, that tends to be it. Sure. Anytime I've spotted one. Yeah. I saw some bears over the weekend. Did you? My dog is the opposite of a wuss.
[00:02:55] My dog thinks she can take on the world. And anytime a bear is anywhere close to the home, she smells it like 15 minutes before we see it. Yeah. And she starts warning me very aggressively. I don't think there's a single animal that gets that same response from her as a bear. Yeah. Where she's just like that guttural like growl just like for 15 minutes and I'm trying to calm her down. Yeah. Yeah. Sure enough. A bear. Man, look at us seeing the wildlife this weekend. Yeah.
[00:03:24] And then I finally ate at Nana's dumplings and dim sum and dumplings. I've only heard good things. It's phenomenal. Yeah. It was a... Yeah. I went to Flavortown. Oh, really? For sure. That was so good. What'd you get? All right. We got to kick things off with crab rangoon. Mm-hmm. Crunchy. Sweet and crunchy. And then did some little... They called them thumblings. Pan-fried thumblings. Dumplings.
[00:03:54] But like kind of, you know... Size of a thumb. Wee big. Yeah. So good. And then, yeah, we kind of got a mix of steamed dumplings and then some soup dumplings. You know? Oh, it was so good, man. Soup dumplings. Highly recommend. That's something I can absolutely crush. And I think Nana's started in Denver from what I can tell. Mm-hmm. But it has been rapidly expanding. Mm-hmm. Locations up all over the Front Range.
[00:04:22] And it looks like they're going beyond Colorado now. Dang. So... Good for them. They've hit some magic, evidently. So people should go see for themselves. It was awesome. Yeah. Wow. Best meal I've had in a long time. Yeah. That sounds amazing. I still need to get up there. Yeah. Yeah. I like that Yellow Mountain Tea House. My dumplings down in Colorado City. I was thinking, you know, I got to be a little more local next time. Do you take your shoes off at Names? No. This is... Yeah. No.
[00:04:52] You got the authentic experience. This is come one, come all kind of... Mm-hmm. You know? Well, Yellow Mountain Tea House, they do have an area where you don't have to take your shoes off. But they do also have the floor seating. Yeah. With the tea service, which is really cool. Yeah. This is... Yeah. This is very big and hip and kind of has a Chinatown feel to it. Mm-hmm. Like you're walking through like a nighttime Chinatown. Yeah. Kind of vibe. The decor looks really cool with that spot. Yeah. Kind of reminds me of like Night Ramen. Yeah. In a way.
[00:05:22] Yeah. Which is another spot that gets a lot of positive reviews down in Colorado Springs. What were you up to? Yeah, man. This weekend, I... Well, I moved about probably 3,000 pounds of rock on Saturday. Yeah. So... But that was a success. Per usual, though, I always need more rock than I buy. I know. But man, I did the Lowe's delivery. Mm-hmm. This is not a sponsor by Lowe's, but they dropped off so much rock for like 70 bucks. Yeah. Or something.
[00:05:50] I was like, this would have taken me five trips in the truck to bring this much rock. And I would have had to load it on and... Yeah. Or $79, I think. How big is the rock that we're talking about? It's just all like... Crushed kind of? River rock. Yeah? Yeah. Like little river rock. One and a half inch? Yeah. Yeah. About that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I got bags of it. It was... The price difference was not big enough for me as a one-man project. I was like, it'll be easier to move the bags than shoveling and everything. Yeah. But yeah, dude. It was a good deal. They dropped it off and I put it to work.
[00:06:21] Sweet. Put it in the work and got it moved. But then I did... So I wanted to mention... Also, I did get a red leg after, so I got to give them another shout out. But I wanted to mention on Sunday, I went over to IVP. Have you ever been there? Never heard of it. So it's a sand volleyball bar. Oh. Kind of on the east side of Colorado Springs. It has a tiki bar there and... Is it off Powers? I'm thinking. Might be. But yeah, it's on Omaha Boulevard.
[00:06:50] Yeah, that's up there by Off Powers. Yeah. I think I do know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Off Powers. Yeah. Really cool spot. Yeah. I was impressed. I've heard about it. I've heard about it before, but I've never been. And they have all the little frozen cocktails and stuff. Yeah. I have heard of it. Probably 10 or 12 courts that are there. Apparently, they do all these leagues throughout the summer. And yeah, just... I mean, we were there for hours. Yeah. Just hanging out in the sand. Good way to do a summer day, right? Yeah. Great way. I'll be back for sure.
[00:07:20] But yeah, I had a really good time there. So if people are in Colorado Springs and you want to play sand volleyball or just get a beachy drink... Yeah. ...with some sand, I mean, it's cool. Cool. Noted, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the rice and beans, which also very good there. So yeah, man, it was an exhausting weekend, I'll say, to be honest, but happy to... You filled it up, man.
[00:07:47] Happy to be back in the office and not getting sunburned. So... You think people tune into the show, very excited to hear about what we eat? I mean... This is how the show starts all the time. We get pretty good recommendations in here. I look up all your spots. I mean, for the sake of tradition, we can look up Nana's Dumplings and Dim Sum and see what it's rated. Let's see. Colorado Springs, about 4.5 to 4.7, depending on the location. So...
[00:08:18] Yeah. Pretty high, once again. Yeah, man, I loved it. Yeah. Yeah, let's get into some of this news, though. So, I mean, wildfires... Yeah, tough times today. Yeah, wildfires being the most dominant aspect of news in the last 48, 72 hours or so. Over the weekend, a lot of fires really started popping up and really started raging. By my count, and all of this information is probably going to be outdated by the time anyone's listening to the show, because these fires... We are talking at about 12.30 here Monday afternoon. Yeah, these fires are growing fast.
[00:08:45] And by my count this morning, I was able to find about seven notable fires around Colorado, burning a total of 51,000 acres. So, a lot of these more serious fires are out west, but as we were talking about before the show, before we hit record, there's a fire down in the Custer slash Pueblo County area, Aspen Acres Fire, that's started today and apparently was in some pretty dangerous
[00:09:14] conditions down there with some winds. That's a big thing going on right now, is that a lot of these fires are just being pushed along by wind. Hot and windy. Yeah. And you have multiple fires in some cases where they're growing and joining together. This is the case kind of toward the Utah border, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, the Snyder Fire, which is the largest fire in Colorado, was actually responsible for three firefighter deaths over the weekend. Really awful. It was a very tragic situation. Awful.
[00:09:43] The three firefighters who were killed were actually out-of-state firefighters that had come to Colorado to help out with their situation here. They were identified as Emily Barker of Michigan, Nick Hutcherson of Glendale, Arizona, and Sydney Watson of Warrior, Alabama, 38 and then 27 and 27 as far as how old they were. So, very tragic situation.
[00:10:07] That wildfire, as of the most recent report, was about 29,000 acres with zero containment right there on the, kind of by FRUTA, right? By the Colorado-Utah border. Part of it's in Utah. The larger part of it is in Colorado. Yeah. And they were actually killed on Saturday while they were fighting the Knowles Fire. And I think that kind of showcases what's going on in the West is that essentially the Snyder Fire started.
[00:10:35] It merged with another fire called the Jones Fire. And then that larger fire overtook the Knowles and the Gore fires. So, scary situation. Very scary. And we got eyes on Urae. Uh-huh. Toward Urae. Yeah. Yeah, Urae. There's, I mean, I think the, as far as like the photos and the videos and stuff go, the one in Urae is probably the most shocking. Yeah. It's right north of Urae, too. Like, there's some evacuations north of the city. Uh-huh. That one's, so in comparison, it's small, right?
[00:11:05] It's 4,200 acres at last report. Probably growing, I would imagine, out there given the conditions that are present. Steep terrain. And steep terrain. Um. And impacting some of the travel in and out of Urae already. Um. As far as I was seeing, I don't know if the road is still closed, but that main road into town was impacted with the detour in place there for a bit yesterday. Um. Absolutely exploded, too. Like, on Sunday, it was reported about 500 acres around noon on Sunday.
[00:11:34] And then, now, obviously, it's over 4,000. So, serious situation. Um. No evacuation or pre-evacuation for the city of Urae at this time. And, I mean, you look at a map, it's like a couple miles. Like, or maybe less, like north of Urae. Like, it's close. Yeah, exactly. Um. But no pre-evacuation for the city of Urae at this time. But residents have been told that there could be a change there. So, gotta be on alert.
[00:12:01] And, I mean, that's one of those places, too, where access in and out of town in Urae is pretty limited. So, you gotta think. People are probably pretty nervous with, uh, if that fire ends up crossing some roads, you know, and cutting off some of those exit routes. Mm-hmm. Uh, you could have a very serious situation. Mm-hmm. Um. Like I said, it is north of Urae. So, they do still have that million-dollar highway escape south of Urae, uh, down into Silverton area. Um. But, I mean, even just the detour alone from that.
[00:12:28] Like, if you look at what's another option from getting to Urae to Ridgeway, there aren't really great options if that fire grows. Mm-hmm. Um. So. Yeah, and you think about some of the, uh, down the line. I mean, everyone's focused on this fire, of course, but all these things have, uh, after effects. Mm-hmm. When you think about that steep terrain that becomes barren, what rains can do to a landscape like that. Yeah. My mind has kind of gone to that. You get that, like, hardening of the soil, too. Yeah. Where all of a sudden, when that rainfall comes, it doesn't have the leaves to kind
[00:12:57] of, you know, break it up. Yeah. And it just rushes down those little sides. It could be, uh, you might hear about the after effects of a fire like that in years to come. But, yeah, man. I mean, uh, I would like to think that maybe there's a little power on this show and we can say something like the consequences of a flicked cigarette. Yeah. The consequences of parking your hot car by grass. Mm-hmm.
[00:13:25] Uh, the consequences of not drowning the heck out of a campfire. Yeah. You know, you are hearing some of these potential consequences. You're hearing about lives being lost, property very likely being lost. Mm-hmm. Uh, July 4th is coming up. Yeah. Uh, I think we're gonna, we have been hearing and we're gonna keep hearing some hard language about fireworks, you know, towns and events getting canceled and people needing to have
[00:13:54] some sense going into July 4th. Right. And, um, yeah, I mean, this is turning out pretty early on here to be the fire season that we feared in Colorado after a historically hot and dry winter and spring. And this is a time as ever to be hyper alert and aware of what any spark could do in this state, especially when winds blow like they're blowing right now. So. Yeah. Very true.
[00:14:23] I, I, yeah, please people. Yeah. Yeah. For the benefit of you and everyone. Yeah. I mean, just the, the consequences of all these wildfires too, it's like, obviously it goes without saying there's a risk to life. There's a risk to property. There's a risk to, um, just the landscape just getting devastated by it. And most fires are human caused too. It's something like 80% if I remember correctly. Um, but I think one consequence that tends to get a little bit overlooked is even just the
[00:14:52] consequence or is even just how it puts outdoor recreation in general and jeopardy oftentimes many, many miles away. Um, just for as smoke, smoke travels, you know, and some of these big fires out West, all of a sudden, you know, you might be down in the Sangre de Cristos and have too much smoke to even really be hiking. I remember back when there was similar conditions down, uh, it would have been probably 2021, uh, with some big fires. Um, pretty much. I mean, you have the whole state drowning in smoke and hard to even get outside.
[00:15:20] So if you're not going to be safe because of the risk to life and devastation and want to look at it from a slightly more selfish angle, your health, be safe for your own health. And for the sake that you might not even be able to get outside this summer. Yeah. A lot of emerging research about what smoke filled air does to our bodies. Yeah. A lot of concerning research out there. I don't think we mentioned fire on massive, right? Or around Mount Massive. Oh, so, uh, yeah. Turquoise Lake. Yeah.
[00:15:46] So, um, I can kind of give a brief overview of a few more of these here. Um, yeah. The Willow Fire. Right. So that's, uh, really close to Leadville. 1,200 acres. Um, been seeing varying reports on what the fire activity looks like this morning. But as, as many Coloradans know, these fires tend to die down a little bit overnight. And then once the new day comes and afternoon hits and the temperatures rise and the, and the,
[00:16:13] the winds pick up again, you see that fire activity increase. Uh, but yeah, I mean, that one out in Leadville area, um, there are some areas that are under evacuation around Turquoise Lake, uh, a lot of dispersed camping out there. So I know there were some initial concerns about making sure all of those dispersed campers are safely out of there. Hagerman Pass right there as well. Uh, Leadville at this time is, uh, not under an evacuation notice. Um, but again, I mean, it's a very close fire, uh, similar to URA in that regard where it's,
[00:16:42] it's close to a, uh, major city. Yeah. Um, you also have Ferris fire, which is kind of out by Dolores. Uh, that one's estimated at about close to 1600 or 16,000 acres was what I last saw. Um, that one, again, another fire where you have kind of multiple fires converging. Uh, now we grew 10,000 acres in less than 24 hours too. So, which is all to say, these things are rapidly changing. And like you and I mentioned, uh, when you were doing the rundown here, it's 1230 Monday
[00:17:10] afternoon by the time you're listening to this. Yeah. Man, uh, I hate to think, I hate to think the update could be even more awful right now. Honestly, I expect it to be. Yeah. And it's one of those things too, where these reports, like a lot of these acres, a lot of this acreage and some of the containment information and, and at last report, none of the fires that I've mentioned thus far have any containment. So that's important to know too. Um, but a lot of that information was published last night, you know, like some of these fires
[00:17:40] that don't even have a report from the morning yet. Um, and especially when you're looking at these fires in these early phases, like, uh, sometimes the, the acreage is just an estimation. Like it might not be accurate. You might just see growth because of more accurate, uh, more accurate, um, analysis of that. So I'm not aware of rain in the forecast either. Yeah. Yeah. Hot and dry in Colorado and supposed to be, you know, hotter than normal. Yep.
[00:18:09] Um, there is some chance of, uh, precipitation still a little bit in the air looking like weeks out in terms of the outlooks, but pretty much every outlook I've seen is saying hotter than normal. Uh, drought, uh, is back on the rise too. Um, not enough. You've seen that, but, uh, put out a report on this last Friday about how all of the like most severe drought in, uh, Colorado is pretty much centered around like the heart of outdoor
[00:18:36] recreation in, uh, um, for summer, you know, like you have Eagle County there, which is kind of this epicenter of the most severe drought. And then you also have Lake County, right? Where there's a fire burning, um, by Leadville. And that is also at that most severe tier, uh, you have Picken County, most severe tier, 100% of all three of those counties are at this four of four drought tier.
[00:19:01] Um, drought gets measured with this, uh, this stack called, uh, the, the DSCI, which is drought severity and coverage index. All of those counties are at 500 of 500 to put that in perspective. The state is at 329, which is still very high as well. Hasn't been seen since 2021. And yeah, uh, while we did have a little bit of relief there in the drought, um, not too much, but it was kind of trending downward with some of those wetter weeks in May and early
[00:19:30] June, uh, the last two weeks that's been going up again. So serious stuff, serious stuff. Um, so what's a very serious stuff, man. Yeah. Moving on from the serious stuff. Yeah. I wanted to, uh, uh, share a little bit of wolf news too. Oh, see the big wolf news from this week. I don't know if I did. A wolf has crossed I-25. Oh yeah. For the first time. It went on a journey. Yeah. This wolf went on a odyssey. Yeah.
[00:19:58] You look, you look on this map, uh, that the, that the Colorado Parks and Wildlife puts out every month. And it's literally just a loop of this wolf traveling pretty much. I mean, maybe even across, uh, the state's Southern border and maybe across the state's Eastern border there, uh, definitely looks like it crosses the Southern border. Um, but this massive loop in South Southeast Colorado, uh, hitting watersheds that kind of start down with Salida and then Alamosa and then reaching out to, uh, that, uh, Eastern,
[00:20:28] Eastern border, Eastern state line, and then back through Pueblo. Crazy. Um, so yeah, I mean, pretty, and I'm assuming that's true. I think that's the direction that it took, but yeah. Um, and then back, back West across I-25 again. So across the I-25 twice, but the first time a wolf has gone East by 25. So interesting stuff. They've got quite the range. Yeah. I remember that was like one of the most fascinating things people were thinking about when they were getting reintroduced was how far and how fast were they going to travel across
[00:20:58] the state. That's one of the more epic journeys I can recall of the, uh, collared wolves to date. Yeah. And I mean, uh, quick, quick Google AI, uh, input here, but wolves can, uh, typically travel around 20 to 30 miles a day. So pretty wild stuff. Kind of like you on your ultra runs. If I can get back to that, we'll see. We'll see. Uh, but yeah, so there's some, uh, quick wolf news for you. Yep. Um, what do we have here? You wanted to talk about an interesting plant. Yeah.
[00:21:26] And I, I know you're excited to talk about it cause you told me that I should be excited to hear about it. So for sure. And I, you know, like every year I do kind of like the wildflower preview, you know, I write something up about how flowers are looking out there or lack thereof. And, um, you know, some years it's, it's a pretty general writeup of, uh, wet years where it's going to be a bountiful bloom. There's dry years like this where I'm expecting, uh, it's going to be kind of some sad news about
[00:21:53] those flowers just not being out in a vibrancy or an abundance as we would hope. Right. And that's indeed the case after the historically dry winter and spring. But there is one very curious plant packed with flowers that is having a banner year. What's it called? It is called, uh, is known as the monument plant. I think fittingly because it's has some monumental size to it. I mean, they, uh, uh, they'll grow taller than you and me.
[00:22:22] Are you hitting six feet yet, Spence? Uh, no, yeah. Someday. Someday. Yeah. They'll, they'll, they'll get up to six feet. I understand, uh, one researcher noted one, uh, by Crested Butte surpassing nine feet. Wow. So they get big. Um, and the fascinating thing about the monument plant is like we mentioned, while so many of our iconic perennials around the state depend on some, uh, winter and spring moisture to
[00:22:50] show up in big numbers and to show up in great colors, the monument plant, uh, doesn't seem to care about the season before. Huh. Uh, and this has fascinated, uh, a researcher who's been studying them going back to the seventies every year around the Rocky mountain biological lab, right? In gap and Gothic close to Crested Butte. He's been tracking, um, this plant for five decades now, and he is learning some fascinating,
[00:23:19] fascinating things about the monument plant. One being, um, it's known as a monocarpic perennial. So it will bloom once and then it dies. Huh. And it will, it'll maybe go decades before it decides to bloom. Um, he, he, he believes that it might be 20 to 40 years for a lot of these, a lot of these plants before they decide to bloom.
[00:23:45] Uh, he thinks up toward the Alpine, they might go closer to a hundred years before they decide to bloom. Um, the last time he saw them blooming in these big numbers like they are this summer was in 2019. Right. Um, and so the big question, why do they decide to bloom when they bloom after decades? And why do they do it all together in mass? You know, why do large pockets do it all together? Huh?
[00:24:13] So those questions are kind of leading to him to some ideas. One being why do they decide, right? Or when do they decide? He thinks it has to do with summer's summer, um, moisture from four years ago. Huh? That's one thing that he's, he's kind of onto. And another thing in terms of why all together, why do they do it all together? You know, um, he thinks there could be advantages to doing it all together.
[00:24:43] One being that they of course rely on pollinators like bumblebees to come and help create that next generation of monument plants. And when they grow up to a certain height, um, and when they grow up all together, like they do or bloom all together, that might be more attractive to bumblebees that are like, let's hit these one after another and spread tens, you know, that, that process that leads to, he suspects tens of thousands of seeds when they do decide to bloom.
[00:25:12] And that next generation has a great chance, just numbers, right? Having the sheer numbers like that. Other thing might be why all together, um, prevents more dying or prevents, um, like browsers, like deer from munching away. If there's strength in numbers to prevent getting killed off from something like that. Um, so just a really fascinating plant. Yeah.
[00:25:35] And, um, again, like this, he thinks this is, um, the most he's seen, uh, since 2019 where they've decided to come up in big numbers like this in Crested Butte and all around. I talked to a guy in the Southwest San Juan mountains who came by hundreds of them. He thinks all together. Mm-hmm . So one to be on the lookout for, you know, kind of a plant that despite its height and despite all these white flowers that'll bloom around it, maybe gets overlooked compared to the Columbines and Lupines of the world. Right. Yeah.
[00:26:05] But nonetheless, a really fascinating plant that kind of reminds us of just like the vast diversity we have in this state. and the mystery around some of these plants that we walk around and the way that they live, you know, in ways that we're still learning about. Yeah. This is an example of that. That's some fascinating stuff. Really fascinating. I am very interested in that plant. Um, we'll make sure we get some photos on, uh, on the video version of the site of that.
[00:26:33] But yeah, it looks like it has like the four kind of white purplish flowers that split open and, um, and then a bunch of them on the plant. So very cool. And again, they don't come up, uh, like this all the time. So when they do come up, it's, you know, a year like this is a good time to see them despite, again, not some of the more signature classic flowers we hope to see in abundance and in color. Um, maybe that won't be so much the case this year, but there's something curious about this plant to appreciate in a year like this. Very cool.
[00:27:03] Um, yeah. So speaking about, uh, Colorado's diversity and its, uh, ecosystems, uh, there was a study that came out that disputes the long held belief that moose are non-native to Colorado. You have a chance to read into this at all? Little bit. I want to do some calling around on it. Here's some more, learn some more. But what, what are you learning? I would be very fascinated to hear more about it as well.
[00:27:30] Um, so the study, it was, uh, let me find the name here real quick. Okay. Uh, the study is titled Understanding Ancient Moose Populations in the Southern Rocky Mountains. And it was credited to, uh, William T.T. Taylor et al. Uh, so a lot of people were involved, uh, in this study from across the nation. And basically, uh, it looks at what records exist of moose being in Colorado, right?
[00:27:55] Uh, moose famously were, uh, introduced into Colorado or perhaps reintroduced into Colorado, uh, back in 1969, was it? Or 1967? I thought we were getting into the 70s. Maybe I'm wrong. I might be. Let me, let me see. It's been a while since I looked at the history of the moose, uh, the moose flights into North Park of Colorado, right? Yeah. Late. Yeah. You're right. You're right.
[00:28:25] So basically what it's doing is it's looking at other examples of, you know, when have indigenous people had oral histories that have been passed down to moose being in Colorado? Uh, what type of archeological evidence exists of potential moose being in Colorado? Uh, when were moose encounters reported in newspapers, right? They looked at a ton of like digitized newspaper clippings from, um, you know, back in the 1800s even, uh, to see like, were there any records of, of moose?
[00:28:53] And the whole study, so, uh, it includes this table of all their findings and there's dozens and dozens of findings of moose that were in Colorado prior to like 1970, right? Um, they essentially found records. If you include the archeological evidence, uh, with some of that evidence, um, maybe not being as definitive as they would want it to be, uh, but back to like 10,000 BCE even. Wow.
[00:29:20] So, uh, potential moose all the way back like centuries and centuries ago. Um, but you also start to have, uh, newspaper reportings back in like the night in 1860, uh, from Sweetwater Lake, which is actually something we're going to talk about a little bit on this show in a, in a different way, but, uh, but yeah, from 1860, there was some, uh, newspaper reporting of moose being in Colorado, 1863 in Estes Park, uh, some reporting of moose being in Colorado.
[00:29:47] So basically all this, all this evidence kind of, kind of seems to point to moose being here prior to, uh, when they were formally introduced in the 1970s. So, uh, pretty fascinating stuff. I mean, I've definitely reported that moose are non-native to Colorado before. I think anyone covering the topic of moose in Colorado has probably reported that moose are non-native to Colorado.
[00:30:11] So, um, yeah, it could be a really big, uh, really big change there, you know, just in terms of our understanding of where moose have, where they've been historically and prehistorically. So. And I'm of course very curious to how, about how Rocky Mountain National Park folks might be reading this or not. Uh, maybe people remember, uh, not too long ago.
[00:30:37] I mean, as far as I know, the National Park is, uh, still, uh, in the middle of this plan to address moose in the park that have, has grown to be a really big concern for the biodiversity of Rocky Mountain National Park, right? Uh, this concern that this, what might be called an overabundance of moose and what that means
[00:30:59] to wetland habitats in that park and the importance of wetland habitats and them being degraded, uh, primarily by moose, you know, there's, um, there's a lot of, there's talk about what do we do about moose in Rocky Mountain National Park in this plant or this study might be saying, Hey, you need to be thinking about, they are part of your landscape, right? That's kind of a message to be taken from this study.
[00:31:28] Uh, they are a natural part of your landscape. Yeah. And that was kind of the takeaway. That was the takeaway, I think, that I was able to glean from like, what's the point of this study, right? It was kind of to show that, you know, maybe moose have been here a lot longer than people tend to think. And maybe they do have a, a more historic role in Colorado. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, Rocky Mountain National Park has used language like, uh, I got to pull up here.
[00:31:55] We're, we're introduced by the state of Colorado in 1978, 79, not, uh, not reintroduced, right? Not making this case that they were historically present. That's Rocky Mountain National Park kind of saying they were not historically present. They were not naturally native. Um, so yeah, kind of some interesting talk there, I think. Right. Yeah. I think it'll lead to, lead to more conversation for sure.
[00:32:23] Um, so, uh, with the Sweetwater Lake thing, briefly mentioned that you have an update and I'm curious to hear about it because it is a beautiful spot. Been a while since I've written about Sweetwater Lake. I think not since 2024 when the forest service was kind of going around and hosting meetings and taking public input on how to manage Sweetwater Lake in Western Colorado in Garfield County.
[00:32:48] Um, gosh, and we talked about it going back to 2020, I think when this, this historically, uh, privately owned part of Colorado in this lake, um, became public, entered White River National Forest. Thanks to this big fundraise, local fundraising effort and some federal money that came in and made this possible to enter White River National Forest.
[00:33:11] And, uh, pretty soon after that, uh, Governor Jared Polis was on the scene to announce Colorado's next state park with this management, uh, between Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Forest Service where CPW would kind of do the development and management of that place as a state park. And that was swiftly met by opposition, you know, um, by locals saying, wait a minute, we didn't
[00:33:39] raise money to make a state park and invite what they perceived to be the masses coming to the next state park and coming to all these amenities that would be built out. Um, a lot of concern about that, a lot of concern that continues with this proposed, uh, management plan. Uh, this, I think the official document is called a draft environmental impact statement in the Forest Service language, right? So 290 something pages outlining what this could look like.
[00:34:09] Um, and the recommendation is to indeed to have CPW manage this for 20 years, uh, various ideas of what to do with the structures and infrastructure around there and also what to do with trail development and, um, increasing lake access and increasing camping opportunities. Um, so that's the recommended action. There's another recommended action among four, um, that kind of foresees a more, I think their language is like a more rustic recreation experience. Mm-hmm.
[00:34:39] Without CPW's involvement and at least very early on from comments getting submitted very early into the comment period, uh, I'm seeing a lot of people wanting that option of no CBW. Interesting. Wanting, um, that rustic experience. And that's kind of been the tone throughout the process here of a lot of local people saying, we want a rustic, wild place. Um, can, can we, can we please have a place where there isn't all this structured,
[00:35:08] uh, development and management, right? Can we, can we just leave it alone? I remember that was one letter back in 2024, literally leave it alone in all caps. Right. And that's kind of been a big sentiment for folks around there. Dang. Um, forest service has said doing that would be irresponsible, right? That they are, they're already noting environmental degradation in, in this area that was this patchwork of private and public land.
[00:35:38] And now that it's finally public, there's an opportunity to do a lot of that restoration. And, um, you know, I've heard land managers say people are coming no matter what. This is a beautiful lake. I think one of the largest natural lakes in Colorado. Um, so there's concerns about safety there without oversight. Um, so, you know, I would imagine forest services really, I mean, yeah, with this recommended proposal to keep that CPW management, I think they're really staying on that line of the responsible
[00:36:06] thing to do is to have someone like CPW come in, charge fees that fund a place like that to manage it like a state park. They're, they're not calling it a state park, but, uh, it would be managed like a state park. You know what I mean? Um, so yeah, that's the update. They're taking public comments until September and, uh, TBD, what the future of sweet, sweet water lake will be, but it's a really beautiful area backdrop by the, uh, flat tops wilderness.
[00:36:37] And, um, yeah, I've, I've followed it along because I, you know, it, it, uh, it's not only a beautiful place, but again, a snapshot of some of this management, uh, considerations that you and I kind of keep coming back to every other week. It seems there's a new place that are getting into the, that's getting into the, uh, the crux of keeping things wild and managing things so that they can remain wild or not.
[00:37:03] You know, that's a debate out there and sweet water lake is kind of the next is one flash point of that debate. Very cool. Yeah. Um, yeah, you gotta keep following along and keep us updated, man. Cool. It is beautiful. It's beautiful, man. Yeah. Yeah. Let's, let's talk about the state's most beautiful Alpine lakes. Ah, right. I'll kick us off. I'll kick us off. Um, one that I find incredibly stunning is sky pond in Rocky Mount national park. You got those, those spires above it.
[00:37:32] But it's at about, uh, want to say a little bit over 10,000 or it's at about 11,000 feet of elevation. Uh, the hike there too, you go by, uh, was that lock veil? Right. And, um, pass a couple other smaller lakes along the way. Uh, but yeah, man, sky pond, if you're going to hike to a lake this summer, sky pond is a good one to consider. Good one. Pretty in shot of the front range. Yeah. You got the falls on the way too. There's some, there's several waterfalls that you pass along the way.
[00:38:00] So very, very beautiful. What do you got? I was kind of thinking about another one where the word is out there on, uh, Mohawk lakes, uh, by Breckenridge. Yes. Um, I did that hike once and that was really gorgeous. Um, uh, again, kind of off the highway there. Um, and, uh, you go past like mining ruins and wildflowers. I remember were really pretty that summer.
[00:38:26] I was doing it, um, past some waterfalls as I'm recalling a lot of variety for what felt like a fairly short amount of time. You might have to double check me on the mileage. I might be seeing a nine, nine mile round trip up toward the, uh, the top lake there above 12,000 feet. Yeah. I'm seeing correct. I'm seeing about it's, I'm seeing it ranges from about seven to nine to probably depending on how far you want to keep going or something. That's a really pretty one. Very cool.
[00:38:55] Here's one that might not be on your list yet. Uh, but I got to this lake when I was in the process of reaching a 13,000 foot mountain that's above the lake, uh, Jones mountain. Um, but Ptarmigan Lake, easy to get to, uh, kind of right there, right outside of being a Vista, a beautiful little alpine lake. And that one's even higher than, uh, Sky Pond. So that one's, uh, that one's above 12,000 feet. So it's, it's a very beautiful lake.
[00:39:23] Um, the hike to get there, I think I want to say it's like six miles round trip. And then you do have that option to go and climb that mountain that's above it and you can check a 13 or off your list. So nice. Yeah. Very, very cool stuff. Yeah. Um, you got another one? One on my list, um, this summer that's been on the list of the masses apparently over the years prompting some new management considerations over there in the Southwest part of Colorado, uh, Blue Lakes, uh, that trailhead, uh, close to Ridgeway.
[00:39:53] Uh, if people are looking at a photo now, uh, they've, uh, well, photos of Blue Lakes have widely circulated on platforms such as these, uh, prompting, or at least maybe partly contributing to the forest service, needing to come up with some new management there. There's potential for permits starting, starting next year. Yeah. So, um, yeah, it's kind of been on my list to, uh, go check that out. It has that, it has that like cloudy blue nature when you see a lot of those photos,
[00:40:22] probably from the silk coming down from the mountain, um, and, and filling those up. But yeah, dude, that one is perhaps no, no Alpine Lake is more picturesque in Colorado. So it's a postcard, postcard Colorado right there. Yeah. Postcard Colorado. Yeah. Um, what else we got here? Oh, real quick. Uh, probably, we probably want to end the show with at least a few bucket list recommendations. This new tradition that we're starting. Yes.
[00:40:48] But first I have a story that is very scary, very disgusting and inherently maybe a little bit humorous, thankfully, because it does have a happy ending or semi happy ending. What is it with you and scary and gross stories? So, I mean, maybe I'm just drawn to it. Maybe I'm getting targeted by the algorithms. Um, but so this happened in California at a, at a popular California campground, um, kind of located near a shaver Lake for people that are familiar with it.
[00:41:18] Uh, Camp Edison is the name of the camp. Um, about 35 miles Northeast of Fresno. Uh, but essentially a gentleman that was there was using one of the vault toilets at the camp when he dropped his sunglasses into that vault toilet. They're gone. That's it. Yeah. You think he went after him? They're gone. He did go after him. He decided that the sunglasses. You're going to put those back on your face?
[00:41:43] Were worth, were worth going for, uh, ends up falling into the vault toilet, which, uh, so he's down there with all the chemicals and the waste. Like a South Park episode. Right. And, uh, and he's trapped, right? These vault toilets are like famously difficult to get out of. Um, and they pose a deadly concern. So like people have died in these vault toilets in very similar situations. Um, wow. Something to, uh, I mean, really not do, you know, don't go reaching into the vault toilet.
[00:42:13] Uh, he was in there for about 15 minutes, um, before he was rescued, which honestly is a pretty quick response time. I've seen, there was one of these basically the exact same situation that, uh, unfolded. I want to say it was either Washington or Oregon, but, um, a couple of, a couple of years ago and that woman was trapped in a vault toilet for about an hour after going for her phone, uh, if I remember correctly. So it seems to be a trend in, uh, in people going for things or first, I guess, dropping
[00:42:42] things into these vault toilets and then also going for things once they drop them. Never learn. Um, these vault toilets are all around Colorado. So if you, uh, if you happen to use a vault toilet this summer, really keep your, uh, valuables secure while you're doing so. And if you drop something in there, just, I mean, it's gone, you know, maybe there's a number you can call it. Why do we even have to say this, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a nasty, nasty situation.
[00:43:08] Um, and I mean, there are, there are cases where people, like I said, where people have died just from the buildup of fumes and the chemicals that are in these vault toilets, uh, after they, they go down into them. Um, there was a, a crazy situation that took place in China where two people died and six people were injured after, or six people needed medical treatment after, uh, um, going in and just one after the next trying to rescue people and then getting trapped in a, in a similar toilet.
[00:43:38] Um, in this case, uh, the man that went into the California vault toilet was uninjured, but he did need to be contaminated or decontaminated. So, uh, as you might expect, um, the decontamination was due to his exposure to, uh, urine, fecal matter and chemicals. So go figure. Yeah. Um, so there's, uh, there's some wild, wild outdoor recreation news.
[00:44:01] Um, the, uh, figured, figured we should mention just so our people aren't going vault toilet diving this, uh, this summer, but yeah, let's, uh, let's get into some bucket list items. No lunch for us. Yeah. Let's, let's end the show with a happier note of, uh, some things to do around Colorado. As, as we've mentioned, Seth and I each have our list of, um, you know, more than 200 things, uh, or together roughly. Yeah.
[00:44:31] There's some overlapping, but, uh, we each have a list of a hundred things each. Uh, Seth has 150. I have 102. For the 150th birthday of Colorado. Yes. Central Colorado things. Very clever on his behalf. Not so clever on my behalf. I just felt like 102 was a good number to stop at, but let's get into it, man. What's, what's something else that we didn't mention last week that you think people should know about?
[00:44:55] People should know about state forest state park, um, and Northwest Colorado kind of toward Walden. Yeah. What's known as the moose capital of Colorado. So there's one thing you might expect, uh, to see a moose have your wits about you at this state park. And you can also expect to see the grandeur that makes this place known by some as like a mini Rocky mountain national park.
[00:45:22] I mean, seriously, we're talking Alpine lakes, big jagged peaks, uh, backdropping the biggest state park in Colorado. It merits a multi-day, uh, trip. And I think like it gets overlooked because of its name, like state forest, kind of like a obscure sort of name, but it's like big time Colorado. More than 70,000 acres. Yeah. So like you said, largest state park in Colorado. There's cool, uh, yurt camping options there too. For sure. That's another option.
[00:45:52] Yeah. That's on my list to get back there. I was there all too quick once upon a time. So I want to go spend some quality time there. So here's one that I got and I've done it in the past, probably 10 years ago, nine years ago. Uh, but I want to hike to the devil's head lookout tower. Oh yeah. Yeah. Up in like that Sedalia area. Yeah. I'm saying that right. There you go. Sedalia. Sedalia. Um, either way up in that area, right on the front range. Yep.
[00:46:19] Uh, you get to this lookout tower that's close to 10,000 feet of elevation and, um, it just like looks out over this beautiful area. When I was there last time you were able to climb the steps up to that lookout tower, uh, access may vary, um, on that I've seen some various closures and such over the years. So, uh, definitely a place where you want to, uh, check for storms before you go, uh, lightning storms can tend to roll through there. I mean, the lookout tower is there for a reason. Right.
[00:46:47] And, uh, spotting lightning started wildfires. So, uh, that one is a very cool spot and often overlooked nowadays. It feels like what's something else you got? We are lingering in the mountains, rightfully so. Uh, we gotta, we gotta give some love to the plains and Northeast Colorado is, uh, is, uh, something that looks like the mountains all of a sudden Pawnee Buttes, these twin Pawnee
[00:47:15] Buttes on the Pawnee National Grassland. Um, they're outside in, in kind of the fringes of Weld County, uh, look it up. Forest Service has directions. It's kind of a series of dirt roads as I recall. And there again, be aware of weather, uh, that tends to get crazy out on the plains, uh, can get crazy kind of fast, be aware of that. And again, kind of some of these rugged and network of roads that go out there, but it's a really cool, surprising place.
[00:47:42] Uh, you know, you don't need to take it from me, take it from John Fielder. Uh, I've told you this, um, you know, the most renowned landscape photographer of our time. Um, the late Grader who, um, he would talk about like this being one of his favorite places in all of Colorado and he'd been to all of Colorado. Yeah. So yeah, it's really, it's a really cool, neat, quiet, uh, site out there. Yeah. Very cool. Um, yeah.
[00:48:10] For one more for me, uh, a spot that I have not been to, um, I've always wanted to go, uh, very rugged escape and evidence of some of the, uh, the most significant volcanic activity the world has ever seen. Mm-hmm. Wheeler geologic area. Yeah. Um. That's cool. That's a, that's a spot. It's out in the Lagarito wilderness. Yeah. Um. Rhymes with Margarita. Yes. Very, uh, very cool. You see those like the ashy like spires. Yeah.
[00:48:40] Uh, that, that just kind of stretch it out and looks very otherworldly. Yeah. And I think that is something where it feels like it'd be an adventure to get there and, uh, an adventure worth taking. Yeah. Uh, well there again, long, rough drive. If you're going, uh, by vehicle, you definitely get out of the right vehicle. Really. I think you only see, you'll only see like Jeeps and like ATVs take on that road as I'm recalling. Yeah. You could also go in by foot. Yeah. That would also be, yeah. I'd like to do that.
[00:49:09] Um, backpacking it in. Mm-hmm. And at least if it's all the same, since I was there, you could camp kind of right outside the proper geologic area. Mm-hmm. Kind of on the outside of national forest there. Yeah. Outside Crete. That is a really cool, amazing place. Cool stuff. That's four. I think that's, that's a good amount, right? We can't overload people. Yeah. We can't overload people. We've got a whole summer to go through these. Yeah. Uh, we'll include a few every time. Uh, we'll include a few of our favorites, but you can find, or at least you can find my list online right now is yours.
[00:49:39] Yours isn't published. In the works. In the works. Yeah. Under construction. Seth's will be much more in depth than my list as well. So, uh, look forward to that. Um, but yeah, I think that's about all we got for today. So, uh, uh, until next time I'm Spencer. I'm Seth. And we'll see you out there.