This was the main walking trail. The arrow shows the bridge that crossed over where the tiny stream used to be.

Several giant new rivers were created to handle the immense amount of water that flooded down from the mountains.

Standing on the bridge...

... over where the tiny stream USED to be.

Marcia passed around some photos of the flood waters.

We left the giant crevices in the earth and headed up the riverbed toward the Old Kiln Trail.

Marcia explained that many of the creeks that are normally dry this time of year have been flowing constantly since the flood. There is a lot of concern for this year's spring runoff. First, the snowpack is at almost 150%; second, the water table is still saturated from the flood waters, and third, many of the normal runoff channels are still choked with flood debris.

The old limestone kiln used to be level with the path. Limestone was used to produce lime for plaster, mortar and cement. The kiln was probably built in the 1880’s.

The flood scoured away layers and layers of dirt, revealing interesting things in the rocks beneath...

... such as these shells. This whole area used to be part of a giant inland sea.

Some kind of marine fossil

Continuing up the trail

It was probably really hard work, but this tree managed to hang on!

Heading up into the Dakota Ridge hills

From the hill we could look back toward North Boulder and see the path of the flood water.

The debris from a giant 'slump' still lay across the trail...

... Looking up to the left was where a large piece of land had simply let go of the cliff and began to slide downhill...

... Looking down the hill to the right was where it had partially buried a house at the bottom.

The water severely undercut Lee Hill Road, reducing it to slightly more than just one lane wide.

A washed-out bridge that led to one of the homes along the road

Another slump. When the land gets so water logged, it simply can't hold on to the steep rock cliffs.

This foundation is all that remains of a house. The story goes that when the hill started to slide, the woman grabbed the pets and fled but her husband refused to go with her. He told her he'd be leaving soon though. Unfortunately he didn't leave soon enough. Mud filled the house, ripping it apart. He managed to escape to the basement but was then trapped because the foundation was buried. Fortunately some of the neighbors were able to dig him out before he perished.

On the way back, we noticed these bizzare patterns in the grass. They led to various holes, indicating they were vole paths.

As we went to inspect a hold a bit more closely, we notice a very tiny skull laying nearby.

A super tiny vole skull!

The trail leading back down also saw its fair share of water damage.