Posted by Kalin Wilson on July 20, 2007 at 1:55 AM
Hey all!
I thought I'd post a quick update for those heading down the the SW corner of Colorado. The first three days in the backcountry were great! Still a couple more days to go.
Clear Lake: LOTS of columbine, paintbrush of various shades, and myriad other varieties. Very nice.
Ice Lake Basin: Very lush and plentiful in all varieties. The lower basin is 'waist high wildflowers'. Columbine, bluebells, bistort, paintbrush, buttercups, daisy/sunflowers, asters, elephant head...
The upper basin is predominantly buttercup, yellow flowers.
Stony Pass: Awesome varieties of paintbrush, some columbine, bluebells, elephant head (plentiful), etc. This was mostly on the west side of the pass but there were visible fields on the east side.
Heading to Yankee Boy tomorrow. I'll post an update tomorrow night. I'm pretty pleased. But this is my first year to those locations so who knows.
Here are some examples from each location. These were minorly adjusted in LR on my non-calibrated laptop, hope they do the locations justice.
This one is Clear Lake - North Slope of cirque basin
Posted by Kalin Wilson on July 20, 2007 at 1:56 AM
This is upper Ice Lake.
Posted by Kalin Wilson on July 20, 2007 at 1:58 AM
Thanks for the update!! 4 days and counting, for me...
Posted by Derek Sedillo on July 20, 2007 at 11:49 AM
Kalin,
Thanks a lot for this update. I actually tried to call you on your cell last night, but it didn't seem like you were getting a signal.
John K. and I are headed down there tomorrow. So this report really helps us in determining where to look. From other earlier reports YBB didn't sound that great this year. It will be interesting to hear if it has improved. If you get a chance for an update tonight please do.
It has been so hot and dry over here this week. We 'finally' got some rain last night and today has nice cloud cover. Hopefully the flowers are getting some of this weather in the San Juans as well.
Thanks a bunch for the update Kalin. Love the Ice Lake shot - I went there a couple years ago and never tire of looking at images from that area... I won't be able to head down till the 28th, so I am hoping for some rain to help keep the flowers in decent shape. Just overnight of course as to not interrupt anybodies efforts down there. :)
Posted by Kalin Wilson on July 21, 2007 at 12:00 AM
Hey guys,
Went up to YBB this morning. The columbine weren't as good as I remember from 2005. Paintbrush, bluebells, etc were OK but not as good as other areas I'd been. I shot some LF in the morning but actually got so tired of dodging other photographers (I'm not a big workshop fan right now) that we left about 10am.
Josh Hardin was up there too (Ran into him at Ice Lake also ), he said conditions were better a little west of the restroom but we didn't go up there.
We went over Ophir pass, not much until we got on the west side. The west side of the passes may be the place to look.
Have fun all of you yet to get over here!
Posted by Kalin Wilson on July 21, 2007 at 12:02 AM
Michael,
It's been raining pretty heavily the last two evenings. So hopefully the flowers will last!
Hey Kalin! Good to see you at YBB and Ice Lakes. Nice shots, especially the first one at Clear Lake. I can confirm everything in this report since I went to pretty much the same places at the similar times. Ice Lakes is looking good especially near the water in the low basin. Stony has great paintbrush especially on the west side of the pass. YBB has spots of brilliance just past the restroom and a little higher with good views of Mt. Sneffels. American Basin is looking good this year from top to bottom, saw some nice patches of columbine at the end of the road and a little ways up the hill on the Handies trail. It rained every afternoon I was in the San Juans last week, so that should help for the coming week.
I also went to Crested Butte Friday night and yesterday morning. Robinson Basin above Lake Irwin is not looking as good as last year IMO, but there is still some nice patches of larkspur, pink elephants, etc. under the waterfalls. Also there is a meadow near the turn off below the old Irwin townsite that has some nice flowers (take the opposite turn from the campground and there are lots there). High on Washington Gulch road is good too with some patches of lupine and sunflower on the trails above the paradise ponds. Forget about anything lower such as Gothic Road, there isn't much there except some scattered fireweed. It rained heavily on Friday night in CB, and I assume later Saturday too, so things might improve.
Hi folks, I'm not really an active member, but I've been reading this posting (and Colorado Wildflowers) for the past week in anticipation of my trip to the San Juan area. Today I went up to Engineer Pass (Ouray entrance) and found lots of wildflowers (at least by my standards) along the way. Unfortunately I'm more a landscape photographer than a wildflower photographer, so I’m not much help on names. Below the Engineer Pass/Cinnamon Pass juncture, there are large fields of “yellow daisies” that can be seen across the divide and some along the trail. At the following GPS location (+37° 57' 42.00", -107° 35' 43.80"), which you can locate by plugging it into Google Maps, are some blue flowers and a few Mountain Blue bells, some red ones (Indian Paintbrush?), some tall white ones, and lots of “yellow daisies”. Also, check out (+37° 57' 42.00", -107° 35' 46.20"”(I’m getting these names from a Visitor’ Center brochure which has pictures but no color)
Above the point where the road divides –left to Engineer Pass, right to Cinnamon Pass-- there are lots of “yellow daisy” buds, which hopefully will result in wildflowers in week ahead.
Anyway, hope it’s helpful.
Roger
Discussion
10 repliesI thought I'd post a quick update for those heading down the the SW corner of Colorado. The first three days in the backcountry were great! Still a couple more days to go.
Clear Lake: LOTS of columbine, paintbrush of various shades, and myriad other varieties. Very nice.
Ice Lake Basin: Very lush and plentiful in all varieties. The lower basin is 'waist high wildflowers'. Columbine, bluebells, bistort, paintbrush, buttercups, daisy/sunflowers, asters, elephant head...
The upper basin is predominantly buttercup, yellow flowers.
Stony Pass: Awesome varieties of paintbrush, some columbine, bluebells, elephant head (plentiful), etc. This was mostly on the west side of the pass but there were visible fields on the east side.
Heading to Yankee Boy tomorrow. I'll post an update tomorrow night. I'm pretty pleased. But this is my first year to those locations so who knows.
Here are some examples from each location. These were minorly adjusted in LR on my non-calibrated laptop, hope they do the locations justice.
This one is Clear Lake - North Slope of cirque basin
Have a great wildflower season!
Thanks a lot for this update. I actually tried to call you on your cell last night, but it didn't seem like you were getting a signal.
John K. and I are headed down there tomorrow. So this report really helps us in determining where to look. From other earlier reports YBB didn't sound that great this year. It will be interesting to hear if it has improved. If you get a chance for an update tonight please do.
It has been so hot and dry over here this week. We 'finally' got some rain last night and today has nice cloud cover. Hopefully the flowers are getting some of this weather in the San Juans as well.
- Derek
Went up to YBB this morning. The columbine weren't as good as I remember from 2005. Paintbrush, bluebells, etc were OK but not as good as other areas I'd been. I shot some LF in the morning but actually got so tired of dodging other photographers (I'm not a big workshop fan right now) that we left about 10am.
Josh Hardin was up there too (Ran into him at Ice Lake also
We went over Ophir pass, not much until we got on the west side. The west side of the passes may be the place to look.
Have fun all of you yet to get over here!
It's been raining pretty heavily the last two evenings. So hopefully the flowers will last!
I also went to Crested Butte Friday night and yesterday morning. Robinson Basin above Lake Irwin is not looking as good as last year IMO, but there is still some nice patches of larkspur, pink elephants, etc. under the waterfalls. Also there is a meadow near the turn off below the old Irwin townsite that has some nice flowers (take the opposite turn from the campground and there are lots there). High on Washington Gulch road is good too with some patches of lupine and sunflower on the trails above the paradise ponds. Forget about anything lower such as Gothic Road, there isn't much there except some scattered fireweed. It rained heavily on Friday night in CB, and I assume later Saturday too, so things might improve.
Cheers!
Above the point where the road divides –left to Engineer Pass, right to Cinnamon Pass-- there are lots of “yellow daisy” buds, which hopefully will result in wildflowers in week ahead.
Anyway, hope it’s helpful.
Roger