When we were hiking high on Mt. Elbert in Colorado, we saw lots of ptarmigans. They were so white we could hardly see them against the snow. They waited until we came very close before thundering off to another place. We think they were White-tailed Ptarmigans!   The White-tailed Ptarmigan is the smallest bird in the grouse family. It lives above tree line in Canada, Alaska, and the Western US. Ptarmigans grow to 12.2 inches and weigh about 16.9 ounces. In summer, ptarmigans

Photo by Jenny Venturo Jesus, God in the flesh, died in the place of guilty sinners. He was buried but rose again. Turn from your sin and...

Photo by Paul Venturo Harsh, cruel wind bit into our skin, and icy, cold snow crunched beneath our feet as we turned and left behind yet...

Whisk is a squirrel. His house is a hollow tree in a quiet pine forest. Like most squirrels, Whisk is usually busy gathering nuts and storing them up for the winter. But even though Whisk is so busy, he still has time for play once in a while. Most of the time, Whisk plays by himself. But one day, he met another squirrel, who was very friendly and just as playful as Whisk. This squirrel’s name was Batter. Whisk and Batter played together for a whole afternoon. They had so muc

Photo by Jenny Venturo People often say that looking forward to something is almost as exciting as the thing itself. Anticipation, in...

Photo by Jenny Venturo Jesus, God in the flesh, died in the place of guilty sinners. He was buried but rose again. Turn from your sin and...

Photo by Jenny Venturo In Westcliffe, Colorado, we saw a few horned lizards. They were slow and easy to catch. We looked at them closely, but we still don’t know what species they were. They could have been Texas Horned Lizards, San Luis Valley Horned Lizards, or some other kind of short horned lizard. We do know that they were in Genus Phrynosomatidae , which means “toad-bodied.”   Horned lizards are also called horned toads. The horns on the lizard’s head are the only true

Artwork by Daniel Venturo Life gets complicated. Life gets confusing. Hopes, dreams, disappointments, failures, quarrels—all these tangle...

Photo by Jenny Venturo Stuck. No power, nowhere to go, nothing to do but play in the snow. We hadn’t been expecting 15 inches of snow to...

Drawing by Daniel Venturo In my last post, I told you the story of Crank-bait and Curly-tail, two chipmunk brothers who found a deadly snake right in the middle of a chipmunk highway! These two chipmunks realized how important it was for them to warn other chipmunks of this danger, so that no little chipmunk would be eaten! I told you that, just as it was important for Crank-bait and Curly-tail to warn chipmunks about the snake in the path, it is also important for those of u

While we were near Grape Creek in Colorado, we had a chance to fish for brook trout. We brought our fly rods down to the creek and cast out our flies. At first, we didn’t catch anything, but soon I got a 9-inch brook trout! Several other people got some too.   The brook trout is a type of char native to the Appalachian Mountains and the Great Lakes. Several populations are found in the Rocky Mountains too. Brook trout grow to 28 inches and weigh up to 14 ½ pounds. They are mo

Photo by Paul Venturo It was our Everest. It was less than half the height of Mount Everest, and the winds were less intense. However,...

Photo by Jenny Venturo Humboldt Peak is known for its wind. As we huddled together at 13,288,’ we knew that it was no joke. Every time a...

All throughout the Rocky Mountains, we were looking for bighorn sheep. We saw several signs saying “ Watch for Bighorn Sheep,” but still, we did not see one. Then, one day, we were driving high in the mountains through Monarch Pass. Right next to the road was a herd of bighorns! Only, these bighorns did not have big horns! They only had small nubs. So we kept looking . . . In Glacier National Park, we saw some better bighorns. They had big, curling horns and were climbing on

Photo by Jenny Venturo Our site at Grape Creek campground, CO, has a beautiful view of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Right out of our...