Friday the 13th, Part 2, a ride which finds deer!

Temps ranging from 37 to 40. Partly cloudy with brief periods of sun, specially closer to sunset.

At 1710hrs my loving wife finds me surfing the net on the couch and said I should go for a ride since the sun was out and the roads were dry. Don't know how I missed this, and of course one of the names by which my wife goes by is "she who must be obeyed".

So, minutes later I was geared up and rolling out of the neighborhood on Maria. At first thought was to head E/SE of home to see if I could see the storm clouds that I thought were still bypassing the Denver Metro area and leaving us clear of snow. I got as far East as CO 103 which I took southbound till I got to Douglas County 24 which I returned to Parker on, I saw sunlight peeking through the clouds over Parker, nothing but gray clouds to the east so the choice was obvious. I had spotted about about six deer as they crossed the road before turning towards Parker. Both the car in front of me and the truck in back of me stopped along with me and watched the herd cross the pavement.

Once in Parker, the sun really shone through the clouds and I stopped in this empty parking lot to catch this picture of my shadow. My proof at the time that we actually had a brief period of sunny weather.


I then headed North on Parker Road thinking I'd take Quincy Rd. back home. However as I neared Quincy Rd, I thought to cruise through the Cherry Creek State Park instead.

I failed to get the light to give me a left-turn arrow at the East entrance to the park off Parker Road so I got back onto Parker Rd and got on the Cherry Creek Dam Road, crossing the dam over to the West entrance to the park. The ranger station was closed so I just cruised on through. Here's a couple of pics I took while meandering the roads within the park.

Looking to the East

Looking to the West

Once I started heading East again on the park road I spotted a large number of deer on both sides of the road. So I stopped and counted about 12 of the beasts! They watched me as I watched them, my four-way flashers going and my engine idling. A couple of them gave me some pretty searching looks, I wonder if they could tell I was wearing deerskin gloves! : )

The Herd

Finally, I ended up shutting off the engine, making sure to leave the four-way flashers going so other traffic in the park would see me stopped on the side of the road. The herd finally decided to go ahead and cross the road in front of me a ways.

It was starting to get dark by now, I made a brief stop at the foot of the dam itself but the light was no longer right for pictures. I headed on home, arriving 2.5hrs after I had left and another 56 miles on Maria's odometer.