A Welcome Outdoor Adventure

Enjoying nature responsibly amid an epidemic

At the end of another week of staying home during the Covid-19 crisis, we enjoyed a beautiful day outdoors together. Some fresh air, sunshine, wind, a picnic lunch, prairies and mountains, and a nature walk all made for a perfect day. It wasn’t hard to maintain social distance as we hardly saw anyone in the areas we visited.

We started with a picnic lunch at the bottom of the Old Man Dam near Pincher Creek. The gate to Boulder Run Day Use Area was closed, but we took our cooler bag and walked in to the picnic area and chose to eat lunch in the picnic shelter. There we could eat sheltered from the wind yet warmed by the sun – amazing for the end of March! There were some fishermen near the river, but no one else around.

After lunch we paused at the dam view point. It was incredibly windy but had an awesome view of the whole dam and spillway.

We then drove by the impressively large wind turbines on the way back to Pincher Creek.

Next, we decided to check out the Miner’s Path trail at the end of Coleman for a nature walk. The path was snow and ice covered but with boots on, very doable. We crossed the creek and climbed the steep wooden stairs to the old mine site. It was a perfect day for a walk, not hot, not cold and the fresh mountain air was good for all.