In 20+ years of camping with my family, you could count on a couple of fingers the number of times we have seen turtles. On our recent trip to South Dakota, we surprisingly saw four, one of which we actually rescued from the middle of a road.

This particular one was a pretty big one and was crossing the road in our campground. My daughter and I of course used it as a photo opportunity as the shelled creature made its way back to its pond. The afternoon light wasn’t the best but it was cool to get right down at eye level with it.

After work Tuesday I hit up an area park as the 70-degree weather was just too good to resist going for a walk. It appeared the pond’s resident turtles had just woken up from their long winter’s nap (called brumation) and were warming themselves up and drying out.

Their shells were all very dirty so I am thinking this may very well have been their first day above the water’s surface for the season. I am no expert but I believe the turtles here are red-eared sliders and western painted turtles. Harsh afternoon light didn’t make for great pics but they were fun to see.

Turtles are not something I normally see or photograph so I was pretty happy to have spotted this handsome creature this past weekend.

With temperatures here on the Colorado Front Range hitting record-setting territory, this guy (or gal) clearly decided it was time to wake from hibernation and enjoy the heat. It didn’t really “do” much beyond sit and enjoy the sun but that was fine by me.

Painted turtles are the most widespread turtle in North America. They can be found in 45 of the 50 states as well as 8 of the 10 Canadian provinces stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic. They do usually hibernate, sometimes for as long as six months in the colder climates.

I promised an image for #TurtleTuesday so here you go.

These fine looking turtles were hanging out in a park near by home, two of nine total in the area. The one on the left looked to be kind of grumpy about getting its picture taken while the one of the right kind of snubbed me and refused to pose. 😉

I know virtually nothing about turtles but I think the one on the left is a red-eared slider and the one on the right a painted turtle.

This crew of turtles was hanging out in a suburban pond near me this past week. My wife had mentioned seeing them in recent weeks but I had little luck when I stopped by. Finally on this day I had a good of luck with seven on this log, two on a nearby one. 

I think the biggest of these is a red eared slider while the rest are painted turtles. 

I ended up taking tons of pics of them which is easy to do since they don’t move too fast. Haha. Someone recently asked me if I had any turtle pics, well now I do. 😉

Painted turtles are the most common turtle in North America and found in many fresh water ponds and waterways. I have seen them before but this was the first time I was able to get decent pics of any.