When Rockhound State Park opened in 1966, it was the first US park to allow collection of rocks and minerals for personal use. It still does today. Visitors are allowed to keep 15 pounds each. Lisa found a few interesting rocks yesterday along the trail. We saw a more serious rockhound quite a ways off the trail.

Today we woke up to a very cloudy, misty day. Our first wet day on this trip. We spent the morning hoping it would clear off enough for an afternoon hike. The moisture mostly moved out of the area around noon so we took a short drive over to the other section of the park, a day use area called Spring Canyon Recreation Area. There are only a couple of hiking trails here and we opted for the Lover’s Leap.

The trail signs warned of a steep climb, but the trail was laid out well for the ascent up the side of one of the nearby mountains and we didn’t have any issues. It took us a under an hour to summit. Midway through the climb, the sun began peaking through the clouds and we were treated to a glorious rainbow when looking back down towards the valley. While the winds were calm during our ascent, they were very strong at the top. We admired the view and then heading back down to the Usain and the cats.

I have fond memories of my Grandma collecting pretty things from nature like rocks and shells. Her flower beds and potted plants held her treasures. My mom likewise loved to slip rocks in her pocket while hiking. My mother and I were with my brother when he saw a large rock he had to have for his naturally landscaped backyard. The truck pulled over and the rock went into the bed before we continued our trip to his friend’s land outside of Ft. Collins. Is being a rockhound training or genetic?