June Wildflowers

I love this time of the year as our part of Colorado --the Front Range foothills--explodes in masses of wildflowers!  As we walk the trails in our community my camera is always at the ready to capture their beauty.

Here are some of my favorite wildflowers...

Our state flower is the Colorado Columbine. 

Another prolific wildflower we see now is the Prickly Poppy

This beauty is the Desert Indian Paintbrush.

A bee was enjoying a Tower Larkspur!

We passed many clusters full of Silvery Lupine

So many wildflowers!

"I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one."

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul. 

 

~ Luther Burbank

We feel very fortunate to have the ability to see and enjoy such a large variety of Colorado wildflowers almost in our own backyard.  It is one of the best pleasures that summer brings every year. I also hope you are all having a lovely summer. Please tell me the name of your favorite wildflower.

PS: Congratulations to the Colorado Avalanche Hockey Team that won the 2022 Stanley Cup today!! 

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A Wildflower Walk Along the Red Rocks

I am fortunate to live in a beautiful area in Colorado located along the Front Range that still has open space parks nearby in which to walk. Although I blogged about trails in this park here, here, and here, every season brings new views and this summer has been a particularly good wildflower season.

South Valley Park is 995 acres and contains 8 miles of trails, all of which wind around beautiful ancient red rock formations.

The park has excellent examples of both the Lyons and Fountain rock formations.  Hard to believe these formations were formed 250 million years ago! More than 7 millennia before Egypt's pyramids were built, human hunter-gatherers lived in this area as 10,000-year-old flecks of charcoal and a Folsom-style spear point have been found in the park during archeological digs.

The rocks are large and impressive...

...and the pastoral foothill scenery makes one feel far from civilization.

The plentiful rain we received during June brought a prolific amount of wildflowers this year!

So many different varieties!

So many different colors...

 

Colorado Wildflowers is an excellent database of wildflower photos and descriptions listed by color, family, size, or keyword.

I am so fortunate to have this park just a mile away from my house! It brings us endless pleasure to be able to walk its paths and enjoy nature. 

I hope you are also having an enjoyable summer!

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Summer Surprises!

A few blog posts ago--click here-- I showed some of the wildlife we are fortunate to see in our community in Colorado. Twin fawns were born in my next door neighbor's backyard and we watched them grow from their newborn wobbly legs stage until they were able to follow their mother around two weeks later.  Recently, I looked out my front window and saw their mother had left them in my front garden for the day! 

 I kept peeking out my window all day to take these photos, trying not to disturb them. Aren't they the cutest things? I am happy to see they are thriving!

Later that day mother doe came back and lead them through our backyard to open wild space near us for the night. It's a busy summer for her!

Another creature that has been busy this summer is this cinnamon-colored black bear! He has been spotted in our community quite a few times. He is coming down from the surrounding foothills very early in the morning and at night, to not only indulge in wild berries but also birdfeeders and garbage in garbage cans!  Our trails have bear-safe trash cans but most residents do not. We have been asked by our HOA to take down birdfeeders and to not put our garbage cans out until the morning of trash pick up, after 7AM.  There is a saying here that "A fed bear is a dead bear," as it is dangerous for a bear to associate humans with food sources. We are told to leave no food sources outside during the summer, and especially in the fall, when bears must consume 22,0000 calories a day in order to bulk up for winter hibernation. We are told if we see a bear to not run, and to make lots of loud noise to haze them away.  If a bear continues to search in an area where people are Colorado Parks and Wildlife rangers trap them, sedates them, tags their ear and then relocates them back to the wild. If they continue to come back to where civilization lives they are sadly euthanized. We obviously hope that does not have to happen! 

As you can see our community is snuggled up against the foothills. All around us is open space...

... lots of open space where wildlife lives.

We are also surrounded by many, many miles of wonderful trails, that are private only for use by residents. They are accessible to hiking, bicycle and horseback riders.

My husband and I love hiking our community trails year round, but in the summer we are always pleasantly surprised by...

...all the wonderful wildflowers we see!

I've taken many wildflower photos over the six summers that I've lived in Colorado--I never tire of seeing them and their variety.

I also try to grow my own flowers in my gardens in summer--not an easy task as the wildlife likes to eat them! In fact, those pretty pink lilies in the collage above were eaten by the twin fawns not long after they bloomed. I try to spray my flowers with a deer and rabbit repellant, but it doesn't always work so I enjoy them while I can. 
The very best flowers of all in my garden are my grandchildren! The photo of them in the collage above was taken during our July 4th celebration. They are all getting so big and I cherish all the time I am able to spend with them. It will be "back to school" time for them towards the end of August.

Summer passes quickly--
please make sure to take the time to enjoy it!

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Alpine Wildflowers at Summit Lake

In my last blog post --click here to read- I showed how my husband and I got caught in a snowstorm driving up to the summit of Mt Evans on the first full day of summer! Because of the inclement weather we immediately turned around from the summit and drove back down the mountain from the altitude of 14,170 feet to 12,840 feet, and turned off into Summit Lake Park.  

All photos will enlarge if clicked on

From the Summit Lake parking lot, we could actually see the storm dramatically drift away from the mountain. It was soon followed by a blue sunny sky and warmer temperatures. We felt safe again!

An interesting graphic placard at Summit Lake that shows its location and elevation in relation to Denver, which is a little over 60 miles to the east.

Summit Lake Park is the highest city park in North America and is the highest park in the Denver Mountain Parks system. This area is popular for its impressive scenery, alpine botanical features, and wildlife viewing opportunities. In 1965, it was designated the first National Natural Landmark in Colorado, as the area is one of the best examples of Arctic tundra in the contiguous United States. The Summit Lake area provides habitat for a variety of rare alpine-arctic plants, some of which occur only here and above the Arctic Circle.

Areas around the lake are permafrost. At this high altitude, there are no trees because of the excessive cold, wind and adverse soils. This year the snowpack seemed much less than last June, as we had a very dry winter and spring this year in Colorado.

Because of the fragile tundra and rarity of its plants, visitors are asked to stay on the trails when visiting the area and not to walk on the tundra. The short growing season makes life a challenge for the many slow-growing tundra wildflowers; their entire life cycles must be completed in a few short weeks.

There are different sights to see along the trails, including views down towards the Chicago Lakes area, and the hiking trails that lead up the mountain from Echo Lake, which then continues up towards the summit.

Summit Lake is also a wonderful area to see the Mountain Sheep that graze on the tundra.

The sights that most excite me every visit, however, are the wildflowers!  This one is Old-Man-of-the-Moutain which almost always faces east.

Alpine Buttercups and White Marsh Marigold wildflowers

Chiming Bells and more Alpine Buttercups

Alpine Spring Beauty Wildflower. I learned last year that this plants taproot can reach as long a twenty feet below ground!

Kings Crown

Pretty Draba Wildflower

Alpine phlox

Alpine Forget-Me-Nots, Alpine Kittentail, Alpine Primrose, Alpine Dwarf Clover.

The wildflowers at Summit Lake are so varied and interesting, and ever-changing in their short cycle of life at an Alpine altitude.  I could spend hours looking at them and taking photographs of them...

 ...but it was getting time to begin our descent down Mt Evans...

 ...past breathtaking scenery...

..and back to lower. forested elevations.

We passed the bristlecone forest on Mt Goliath--click here--to read a blog post about these fascinating ancient trees that are thousands of years old!

Our last stop was at Echo Lake Lodge visitors center at the base of the mountain, where we stopped for a late lunch. Their bison chili and hamburgers are really delicious, and I like their gift shop.  It was a wonderful day with many exciting moments.  Mt. Evans has truly become my "Happy Place." I never tire of visiting it!

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