Dave Parsons Feature: Colorado's South Platte River Valley

Feature Stories

Like the "Dirty 30's," in 2014, tumbleweeds stack up along the barbed wire fence as dust storms blow across depleted agricultural fields with a Dust Bowl era truck parked off Highway 2, just south of Fowler in southeast Colorado. A tumbleweed appropriately sits in the drivers seat.

Dust Bowl Days Search For Disappearing Lesser Prairie Chicken March - April, 2014

Long revered by Native Americans, the mountain lion has been hunted mercilessly by ranchers, early settlers and government agencies. Following clues, I search for my own friendly forest encounter.

Searching for the Wild - Tracking the Stealthy Mountain Lion

High wind driven fires reek havoc on suburban neighborhoods in between Denver and Boulder, Colorado.

High wind driven fires wreak havoc on suburban neighborhoods in between Denver and Boulder, Colorado.

Superior Suburban Fire

August 6-8, 2017 trip - With their population under threat, a magnificent woodland caribou with huge antlers enjoys the cool breeze by the lake in Alberta's Jasper National Park.

With their population under threat, numbers of the elusive and magnificent woodland caribou are in a steep decline.

On The Trail of the Gray Ghost

A pair of critically endangered black and white wild indri lemurs sit side by side in the rainforest canopy in Mantidia - Andasibe National Park, also known by Perinet in the eastern rainforest of Madagascar.

Critically endangered, a pair of black and white indri lemurs sit side by side in the rainforest canopy in Andasibe - Mantidia National Park, Madagascar.

Madagascar - An Endangered World

Muching on a willow branch, a large beaver enjoys the waters of Bear Creek.

River of Life - Bear Creek, Colorado

A female black bear enjoys sitting and scratching in the cool waters of the South Platte River in Waterton Canyon on a hot August day after grazing on acorns in scrub oak trees with her two cubs nearby, fattening up for the winter months in Littleton, Colorado

Sitting and scratching, a female black bear enjoys the cool waters of the South Platte River in Waterton Canyon.

Colorado’s South Platte River Valley

At sunset with warm light shining, three of five wild swift fox pups play and run by their den in the tall, green grass in the Pawnee National Grasslands on the north-eastern plains of Colorado. One pup tracks a flying beetle while another sticks his head into the den and another keeps a look out.

Three of five wild swift fox pups play and run by their den in the tall, green grass in the Pawnee National Grasslands on the north-eastern plains of Colorado.

Colorado’s Pawnee National Grassland

Kicking up snow, a wild bull moose with large antlers walks across the snowy Round Prairie valley with the willow filled Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Yellowstone Christmas

Early Settlers of Newfoundland, Eli Davis, Bertha Davis, James T. Parsons, Clowns Cove, George Davis, Bertha Davis, puffins, wildlife, Carbonear, Beothuk, Nicholas Nicole Parsons, fishing, cod, Carbonear Island, Freashwater, Conception Bay, Avalon Peninsula, Ferryland, Maiden Island, Maidenaire Island, Graham Butt, Cupids Cove, Archaeology

Newfoundland, a windswept island in the rough and unpredictable seas of the North Atlantic, known for its wealth in codfish has been a rocky outpost for settlements for thousands of years. During the last ice age, glaciers scraped away the island’s topsoil and deposited it 200 to 300 miles away on the ocean floor creating the rich fishing grounds of the Grand Banks. Likewise, generations of native peoples and Europeans as well as sea life have been attracted to the concentration and variety of fish in these waters.

Learn More! - Read the PDF - (21MB)

During a 500 year event, continuous and heavy mid-September rains in 2013 caused rivers and creeks to completely topple trees and bury vehicles. The raging waters washed away highways, bridges and homes in Colorado Front Range communites. The COLORADO floods link above takes you to a collection of video and photos taken during and after the event.

After photographing such extreme weather events the past few years, from flooding to fires and now with the record high CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, are such wild storms going to be a continuing trend?

Below, are time lapse images of the Bear Creek Lake Park reservior after the heavy rains disappeared. The reservoir was ten times its original size after Bear Creek was done raging.