Ogden Nature Center

 

Every time we go to visit ma, we drive past the Nature Center and comment on how we would like to check it out sometime. So today was the day! We picked up the kids, had some lunch and headed out.

Before we even hit the fee station there are some awesome views of the mountains.

And a bizarre display of bird houses. Honestly it looked like a graveyard of bird houses, but apparently there was some charity auction for them. Still, kind of weird.

Pretty little pond.

There is a brief I’d say .2 mile walk from the parking lot to the visitor center. When we arrived the nice lady informed us that we hard arrived on Ogden’s RAMP free Saturday. Sweet! Saved us $16 bucks or so. She explained a lot of the trails, and that the raptor exhibit is all birds either currently being rehabilitated, or are injured enough that they would not survive in the wild. Now that is my style of zoo. Not animals caged for the sole purpose of being viewed up close, but being helped while allowing the public to view them.

Falcon.

Eagle.

Bald eagle. I was irritated with the bars, but understood why they were there.

Eagle nest. Holy cow they are enormous!

Owl.

This crow bent his head all the way back to look at us…. pretty disturbing.

Another owl.

I forget what this was, but I want to say a falcon.

Pelican. These guys had a more open exhibit. But, these guys are less likely to peck my eyes out.

I forget what this was. Looks a little angry. After this we ended up on the trail. I thought it would be paved or a board walk but it was natural dirt path most of the way. Apparently they have wild turkeys running about as well.

Tadpoles in the murky stream.

Bizarre mess of tangled branches. Not sure if this is natural or was helped by man, but it’s a perfect little fort under here.

We took the side trail to the lookout. It offered a nice view here.

After mis-reading the map, we returned the wrong way. You know, I have decided I suck at reading maps.

But we did find a cute dragonfly.

Another strange canopy. There are quite few old hunting blinds, so I wonder if these are just more natural looking ones?

Stagnate pond through a more obvious blind, that I failed to take a picture of. This also let us know we had taken a wrong turn and were almost back to the visitor center. Crap, back we go.

Another dragonfly. I love these guys. They typically stay put longer than butterflies.

A wild rabbit appears! Considering the kids not knowing how to walk quietly, he actually let us get pretty close before taking off.

And here he is in the grass hoping we’d leave him alone.

After turning around twice… we reached the other pond.

Not further up, we spotted a deer just chilling next to this stagnate pond. She just watched us, but didn’t seem terribly perturbed by us. I signaled to the kids to keep as quiet as possible.

We got to watch her nibble some grass.

So then we decided to continue down the trail to see if it offered another view.

Nice view of the mountains above Ogden, with no man made stuff in the way.

A little bit closer through the trees, but now we definitely have her attention. The kids were really enjoying this, but I decided we had stressed her enough and we should head on down the trail.

A last parting shot.

Again, the kids were really having a good time, and I have learned that they will run and catch up if I start walking down the trail. Suddenly they exclaim there are more! What?

Oh wow! She has 2 fawn. Where in the world was she hiding them? She must have been laying on them. We got to watch them nurse for a minute.

She then kind of pushed them off with her back leg and started walking away. I think she thought we had left, so she let her young out to feed, then realized we were still there, kicked them off and started moving away. Alright kids, we have definitely stressed this mommy enough, it REALLY is time we move on down the trail.

I am now glad we struggled with the map and had to turn around twice because it allowed us to see this wonderful show of nature. The kids really enjoyed it and so did I. Sometimes life’s little mishaps can end in an awesome way.

The rest of the trail is rather pretty as well.

A couple other nice views of the mountains.

Blooming thistle.

Tanner kept mentioning Yoda Tree that was somewhere here in the park. This looks like Yoda to me, so I asked him if this was it, he said no. Alright.

Between getting a little turned around, and seeing an awesome display of nature, we were pushing our strict “park closes at 4” time, so we skipped one side trail I wanted to see.

After hitting the gift shop, we headed back to the car. I was hoping we would have time to see the aquarium but we did not.

Another shot of all the random bird houses… still kind of creepy.

You know, when it said Nature Conservatory I expected paved, or board walked trails. Other than the visitor center, and the bird exhibit, it was all wild and natural trails. We saw plenty of wildlife and had a wonderful time! Best random pay for nature (yet free today) adventure we have done.

Due to our timing there were not any people we saw. We got in free, and again saw some amazing wildlife. It was super easy and the kids, even though they have both done it before, really enjoyed it today. Yea, we got confused with the map but this was awesome! I would give it a perfect 10, but the strict closing time of 4 pm kind of rushed us, so I am removing a squirrel for that reason alone. (I’d probably remove another if I had to pay for it though) So, I guess fairly, we end at 8 squirrels.

As for difficulty, it’s not paved, nor board walked, but it is flat and generally hazard free and definitely family friendly, so I am going with a DR3.

Lisa Falls

 

Plus a little bonus trip to the top of the canyon. I had originally planned on seeing Secret Lake today, and while in the canyon do this quick little side trip. Well the directions I had were drive 2.7 miles up little cottonwood canyon, and hike north.

The mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. (DBP)

We got 2.6 miles up and saw a parking lot and a trail south, but nothing north. We started driving further and the odometer spun to 2.7 within 10 or 15 feet. Still not seeing anything we pressed on for Secret Lake.

After passing Alta we hit the last parking lot before the last jaunt onto the dirt roads to the Albion Basin. Here was a ranger station that had signs saying Albion Basin lots full. I knew they had a shuttle service so we got in line for the ranger station so I could ask about it. When we pulled up the ranger, or.. whoever was manning the station suddenly got all excited about a potgut squirrel and proceeded to spend the next few minutes playing with it and feeding it bacon. I didn’t mind too much, potguts are cute so whatever.

After he finally turned to us I asked how often the shuttles run. Till 5. Well, that’s good to know, but how often do they run? He say there really isn’t a schedule but every 15-20 minutes or so. And one has stopped running because of the rain. ooookayyyy. I was just about to ask about something else when he says now if you don’t mind I have a line. Seriously? Yes. I hate to be the guy holding up a line, but it wasn’t my fault. He spent 2 minutes messing around with a squirrel! Blarg. So we pulled over to the parking lot to use the restrooms.

It sure is pretty here up just above Alta.

So even though it said lot full we were seeing more cars going up then down so not wanting to waste the trip and realizing even if we did find a place to park, it was probably extremely crowded today. Secret Lake is not so secret. And we didn’t want to risk taking the shuttle up and not being picked up. So, we got back in and drove down to where we thought Lisa Falls was.

This time we parked at the upper north parking lot and we found a small trail.

Quick view up the canyon.

This is not a marked trail in anyway. You just have to know where it is I guess.

Pretty trail. Fairly rocky though.

It follows a dry creek bed, which was concerning me that maybe I had come too late in the year and it was not flowing anymore. Luckily not much further up you start to hear it. But still, what’s with the dry creek?

Towards the top of the trail you have to scramble across the dry creek bed and boulders.

After emerging from the trees you get your first glimpse of it coming down the granite cliff face.

It really is a lot bigger than it looks in photos. It’s also a pretty cool waterfall just coming down a rock cliff.

You can see a pretty mountainside across the canyon.

Quick close up.

I like how it comes out of a narrow channel, fans out, then hits the ledge and recollects as a narrow channel.

I don’t know for sure, however it appears the waterfall originally flowed down the now dry creek bed we hiked up. Then there was a rock slide that dammed that up, and now it flows slightly to the south.

From the new creek bed, the waterfall is almost invisible.

The narrow canyon the creek comes out of.

 

Back to the lower falls. I just love the colors of the rock here.

The waterfall and some large boulders.

Debris flow in the original creek bed.

The trail is really short, Landis tried his new pedometer app and said it was .21 miles from the waterfall to the trail head. Before long we were back to the car. I noticed another car was from Oregon and couldn’t help to think, you came from that gorgeous state, with some of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen, to see this? Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty, and worth doing, but we have better here!

Nice DBP shot of the canyon coming down.

Terrible, terrible DBP shot of the rock that always has a stick “propping it up” for as long as I can remember, ever since I was a kid this has always delighted me. I know the stick has been replaced a few times, but it’s still fun.

Rain soaked windshield. (DBP)

All in all it is a nice, quick excursion with a nifty little waterfall down the side of a granite cliff face. It’s totally unmarked so not too many people on it. Big Cottonwood Canyon has Hidden Falls. Little Cottonwood Canyon has Lisa falls. Both aren’t very far up the canyon. Both quick little jaunts, both hidden from site until you come upon them. Both different and neat, family friendly and worth checking out. 8 out of 10 squirrels.

 

As for difficulty. It’s a little rocky at parts, and slightly uphill, but it is really super short. So even though there is a short section with really rocky footing, I am going with a DR3. I think you would be fine bringing the little ones on this one.