A bolt of lightning stuck a large cottonwood at Stearns Lake in August. The iconic eagle nest went down in flames. The female eagle hung upside down, apparently dead, and a red-tailed hawk was killed. Go on YouTube to watch the tragic drama.

Miraculously, the eagle recovered, and she and her mate are now searching for a new nesting site. Hoping the eagles will choose another large tree in the vicinity, Boulder County Open Space closed a section of the Cradleboard Trail to encourage the eagles and to protect them. If the eagles decide to nest near the trail again, the closure will remain in effect for the 2024-25 breeding season.

Meanwhile, the Mary Miller Trail skirting Stearns Lake and the trail from Stearns to Josh’s Pond remain open. To our delight, the Stearns Lake parking lot reopened on Oct. 31 after being closed for many months while the area was upgraded.

So, to celebrate Halloween, Kit Basom and Ruth Carol took an easy, one-way, mostly downhill stroll from Josh’s Pond to Stearns Lake watching hopefully for eagles. And there they were — in a distant cottonwood that looks like an ideal nesting tree. Hope is definitely a thing with feathers.

We started in Broomfield’s Lac Amora Open Space and circled clockwise around the pond named in memory of 10-year-old Josh Cassell who loved the pond and who died in 1991. A bubbler keeps the water open in winter attracting noisy throngs of geese and ducks. Sit and watch the show from the stone bench near a sculpture labeled “No Hooky.” Peer over the teacher-fish’s back to see what he’s reading to the three young students.

At the beginning, the route can be confusing, as there is no consistent name for the trail, and there are few signs. Near Josh’s Pond, the trail is called Lake Link Trail. Farther down, it becomes Rock Creek Trail. Still farther down, it is 104th Street. To orient yourself, look to the northeast, and you’ll see Stearns Lake in the distance below.

When the trail forks at the north end of Josh’s Pond, take the right fork down to the Burlington Northern railroad tracks. Then, take another right and parallel the tracks to a large sign. Turn left, cross the railroad tracks and, from there on, the route is obvious.

Shortly after crossing the tracks, the trail (now called Rock Creek Trail) forks, with the left branch following the creek to Brainard Drive. After passing a marshy area on your right, you come to the temporarily-closed Cradleboard Trail, also on the right. When the trail merges onto South 104th Street (closed to traffic at this point) turn north and continue to Stearns Lake. After you go through a metal gate, the road is open to traffic, but it’s minimal.

Prairie dogs (that supply plenty of protein for eagles and coyotes) inhabit a large colony on either side of the trail and squeak shrilly at human trespassers. Some of their burrows are at the very edge of the trail, and you can walk to within a few feet before they disappear.

We also saw sandhill cranes flying overhead as well as hunting kestrels, yellow-vested meadowlarks, white-crowned sparrows, great blue herons, shoveler and mallard ducks and a western grebe. The grand finale was a pair of red-tailed hawks harassing one of the eagles who turned upside down to brandish talons at the hawks.

In past autumns we have seen mating great-horned owls and northern harriers. When migrants from the north arrive, we have listened to and watched over a thousand geese in the water and in the sky. Often a few snow geese hang out with the Canada and cackling flocks. Stearns Lake is a great birding spot with 215 species documented on eBird, the online database of bird sightings.

For this one-way hike, we spotted one car at Stearn’s Lake near the southern terminus of 104th Street in Lafayette and another at the intersection of Rock Creek Drive and Poplar Way in Broomfield.

Ruth Carol and Glenn Cushman are the authors of “Boulder Hiking Trails,” available from Amazon.