Castlewood Canyon - textures and shapes...

Castlewood Canyon is one of my favorite places to hike in Colorado. We hiked there in Summer and Spring, and enjoyed the Fall time too. I guess we never tried it in Winter, but... located just outside of the town of Franktown this park is easily accessible and always fun to explore. There are several hikes to choose from and... this place is just perfect! The surroundings look so colorful when the trees are changing colors (click here to check it out - Castlewood Canyon park again, but from another angle) and I believe the Fall time is the best. But Spring also has its own beauty. Even everything looks bare and faded... there is still a lot to see and enjoy (click here to look - Castlewood Canyon park. Still bare and colorless). But last Sunday we didn't really hike (thanks to the strong and gusty wind), but strolled leisurely and... looked around...

 

And we were rewarded with some amazing details and textures we found on and above the ground ;) Just a few steps down the trail and we stopped, amazed by patterns in the water... hm... created by the water? Hard water patterns? Ice patterns? It seems like I haven’t looked closely at frozen puddles since childhood ;) that's a pity!

Not all water was frozen hard and we enjoyed looking at leaves and lichens...

 

But the best thing to do was to magnify the ice and examine it...

I don't remember when it was the last time I saw something so beautiful, detailed and abstract at the same time! Can you imagine that it is just water frozen and fragile?

Here and there oak leaves were embedded in the ice, and they created amazing and colorful pictures... all we had to do was just to stop and concentrate on something really small ;)

Old pines are just another world. With trunks weathered and exhausted, bleached and bare... But to these long-lived trees it meant nothing. They are still there and are still alive!

In some places the ice was transparent and colorless, but in others it was filled with air bubbles and retained a brownish color. And leaves again... What a joy for the curious eye!

And the moss is green and lush! Warm sun and plenty of water, what else does it need?

When you look at the tree from afar, you enjoy the shape and the size...

...but if you look closely... you can see something different... texture and pattern and... they are just simply beautiful, aren't they?

As I mentioned before... we mostly looked at and enjoyed the water... Liquid or frozen... But there was plenty of snow around the trails... and I guess this is the third state - something between the other two ;)

But still... the frozen version is the best, don't you agree?

Click here to see another Spring hike there... early April, when some colors are coming up but the nature is just waking up and not yet in full bloom - Castlewood Canyon, Sunday hike in April.

Pictures were taken on February 25, 2024.