Arkansas River Valley near Buena Vista, CO

We parked along the Numbers 4 section of the Arkansas River, north of Buena Vista, for a week.
Lots of rafters and kayaks – the water is running very nicely.
We walked up river to this area where a commercial photographer was set up to get lots of white water splash.
Our first evening we saw three big horn sheep rams – this guy is checking out the Ram ProMaster Travato! Like brothers. We watched him come down with the binocs.
It was very much fun to watch them forage – they were actually eating yucca blossoms. We read they were re-introduced in this area in 1980.
They kept trying to cross to the river but this would create a bit of a traffic jam with people stopping to take photos.
Our second night there was a group of five rams – then they must have found another place to explore.
We did a day hike up towards Cottonwood Pass to Hartenstein Lake – it was only a little over two miles but 1600 foot climb. We were too out of breath to take many pictures but got this nice one of the lake with Mt Yale during our picnic lunch.
This is the start of a hike in Brown’s Canyon National Monument – gorgeous scenery with granite boulders and the Collegiate Peaks.
Prickly poppies were in full bloom and a thunderstorm off in the valley kept us paying attention.
We walked to this overlook of the Arkansas River and saw a group  rafting Brown’s Canyon.
Time for a picnic lunch before the clouds close in on us.

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