Believing The Bird

We were the first ones at Bishop Rock Sunday morning, the 5th of September, but there was plenty of traffic along the dirt road, likely headed to Rock Creek Campground farther up into the San Juan Mountains, mostly pick-ups and pick-ups with campers.

Wanting something a little different from our usual hike up into the hills, we elected to follow the base of the rock formation for which the area is named.
First we had to make our way through a field of cactus, chamisa, and cow pies. As we neared the rocks, we observed several trails all paralleling the rocks: game trails, cattle trails, hiking trails, or maybe just a mix of the three. We kept to the higher ones most of the way. Joe had been down here before and told me that the lower trails were harder to navigate because of the low tree branches.

We intended this to be a shorter hike, maybe an hour to an hour and a half, so this was fine with me. There were still plenty of opportunities to dip down lower, if I wanted to. The area is at around 8200 feet but the trails were at the baseline of that elevation. Everywhere I looked there were hills and slopes and mountains (Sangre de Christo Mountains to the east and San Juan Mountains to the west).

An enormous Ponderosa pine beckoned us to stop for a snack break and offered a couple of large, smooth rocks to rest upon. Though not a really hot day yet, it was noticeably cooler in the shade.

Currant bushes began to appear along the trail and Joe had his fill of “trail nibbles.” He said these were the largest and sweetest he’d seen this summer.
I busied myself choosing plump rose hips to dry for tea this winter. Before we’d left home, I’d popped a couple of snack baggies in my pack and was able to nearly fill two of them.

Around this stretch, just past the thick offerings of currents and rose hips we came upon a number of dragonflies. There is no water here so we were a little puzzled as to why they were in this particular area. Perhaps they were out hunting prey as a group.

In one area, the smooth rocks invited us for an easy climb and I looked around carefully, knowing that mountain lions live in this area. Mostly they feed at dawn and dusk so I’m not really afraid, but I am aware. On one of our first hikes at Bishop Rock we saw cougar tracks.

The climb was fun and we explored a bit as we got to the top.

As we made our way back down to the trail we were following, we noticed that the dragonflies seemed to be following us! Probably we were just in their intended hunting area but it did seem odd.

We finished our hike with one wildlife sighting – a rabbit.

When we got home I looked up the symbolic significance of dragonflies. The author of https://dragonfly.org/the-symbolism-biology-and-lore-of-dragonflies/ writes: “The dragonfly, in almost every part of the world symbolizes change and change in the perspective of self realization; and the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life.”

So we received a number of rewards for our efforts: currants, rose hips, enjoyment of a lovely hike, beautiful trees and shrubs, and an acknowledgement that we may be beginning to understand a bit of the world around us – all in about an hour and a half!