If we could sum up todays events in one word it would certainly be ‘nature,’ something the Rocky Mountain Arsenal is known for. We were greeted at our base by a doe grazing in nearby bushes. Our first activity of the morning (after applying lots of sunscreen) was to try fishing again from the same dock as last week. Half of the group was set up with poles while the other half hunted Dragonflies, Damselflies, and Butterflies with insect catchers. And then we heard a scream (of joy), as a camper had caught a fish! Not any ordinary fish, but the FIRST fish of the summer and of camp in Denver. At that point the bug catchers were so interested in the fishers that we all gathered around the dock to cheer everyone on. It worked – by the end of our time every single camper had caught a fish (these were Blue Gills), and a few even caught more than one. Our attention then turned to insects – campers caught many Damselflies and we found a Dragonfly emerging from the nymph stage of its life, something none of us had seen before (even the adults)! After fishing and insect catching we headed for the shade of our canopy to eat lunch.
After lunch campers enjoyed time at the Arsenal’s Visitor Center. There they learned about the history of the Arsenal, the many different animals that call the Arsenal home, and even got to play with puppets at the Arsenal’s puppet stage. After campers had enjoyed a long while in air conditioning we headed back outside. We crossed Lake Mary’s floating dock and saw a Muskrat crossing the road! After that, while playing camoflauge, and Mule Deer passed lazily by. We performed tests on Lake Mary’s water during water quality and found it and our drinking water have some differences between them. We finished our time at the Arsenal eating GORP and discussing “what we wanted to be when we grow up.” On the way home we sang a camp favorite, “Country Roads.”