Wildflowers 2011

I don't know if there has been a wildflower sticky done in the past kinda like the fall color updates but maybe we could?

If anyone is looking for flowers, get your butts to the Granby area. There are large patches of flowers popping in the hills around town.

South of Granby, (northbound) hang a left at the light with the McDonalds and take that road until it turns to gravel. Shortly thereafter, this patch is on the right hand side.

This pic isn't great with the midday light, but I got this one Sunday.

Lupine are blooming nicely at the lower elevations along the Sneffels Range for those willing to road trip to the San Juans. Maybe not in great quantities, but if you look around a little you can find some nice comps. The best bloom I found was along CR 5 out of Ridgway past the national forest boundary...where the scene above was shot. I captured this on June 18.

Lower elevations in the San Juan Mountains are chock full of lupine and wild iris.

A twitter friend also let me know that the lower areas of Rocky Mountain National Park have some nice patches of flowers. Not sure about specific locations, but sounds like there are some good opportunities to find flowers in the park.

Every day I drive past some pastures that are usually chock full of paintbrush and stuff but this year I haven't seen jack. Either I missed them, they're later than usual, or it's just a very off year. Hope CB is good this year.

Also, on Saturday mid morning I found this patch about 10 miles west of Cowdrey, way up in the north park valley.

For those in the area, Columbine are just starting to bloom in the usual place on Mt Herman, and should be at peak within the next couple of days. Also, lots of wild roses, and strawberry blooms, along with some others whose identity I don't know. If you go, bring bug stuff. The usually well flowing creek at the bottom of the trail is pretty stagnant and there are LOTS of flies (they don't bite, but they are annoying!).
...And be aware of mosquitoes and West Nile Virus. I hope it's true that once you've had it, you can't get it again. I don't want to go through that again!

I found many calypso orchids at Golden Gate Canyon State Park a little over a week ago. I can usually find them until the end of June. This is from my last trip there with my black umbrella used as the background.

Came across Cottonwood this afternoon. As you dive down toward Taylor Reservoir there are some lupine in the lower elevations, but they are not very profuse. I'm guessing that in a week or so they will be pretty good.

Posting this from Crested Butte where the conditions are similar. Some nice patches in the usual spots between the top of Kebler Pass and Horse Ranch. Probably two weeks before they start showing in broad areas.

I would generally agree with Bill's notes about Crested Butte. I backpacked around the Beckwith Pass area this last weekend and the flowers are a few weeks away from peak. There are some small sections of golden banner and march marigolds, plus a few other flowers here and there. Based on the flowers at lower elevations, it looks like this could be a great year for Crested Butte. The hills coming into town and some places along Kebler Pass are covered in lupines and other flowers.

Too much snow! The lots for Long Lake and Mitchell Lake aren't even open because of the snow still there at Brainard Rec area. 2-4 weeks for flowers.

I've been told that the wildflowers look pretty good on top of Cordova Pass, particularly at the top between the Spanish Peaks. I hope to visit there this weekend and see for myself.

I'm starting to see some nice cactus blossoms in the foothills outside Colorado Springs...

I just got back from riding over Engineer and Ophir Passes in the San Juans and Last Dollar Road from Telluride to Ridgway. Flowers are blooming up to about 10,000', some in abundance. I saw a few columbines, lots of wild iris, lots of lupine and, along Last Dollar, thick carpets of what looked to be balsamroot. There are also some great patches of lupine along Marshall Pass and Weston Pass roads. Even found some Old Man of the Mountain at the top of Weston Pass, though not in any great quantities.

I went up Hermit Gulch near the east side of the I-70 tunnel a few days ago. In some years there are good blooms of Columbines in the lower areas. Very few wildflowers down low. At about 2.5 miles there was snow on the trail in the shaded areas. Those who slogged up to the lake said that about the last mile of trail was all snow and the lake was mostly frozen.

I was looking to do some Sangre action this year...but was told it was very dry. However with the recent storms maybe it will be delayed. Does anyone know how long it takes wild flowers to react to precipitation?

Lots of arnica here in the Yampa Valley and nice columbines and wild roses around the Dry Lake Campground area now. They will be even better this weekend. But it will be several weeks before there's anything of note around Dumont Lake on Rabbit Ears Pass.

Get out to Crested Butte NOW!!! The wildflowers are everywhere!

Went out to Lower Cataract Lake, near Green Mountain Reservoir last Sunday morning and at least the southern side was thick with wildflowers. With the recent rains, they should be good for awhile, but they appeared to be peak right now. Here's just one general shot from early Sunday morning.

I visited American Basin and Crested Butte over the past few days. American is great but there are also some areas that haven't bloomed yet so I'd say that go now, go in a week, either way you'll find lots of blooms. CB is still looking good along Gothic Road, the only place I went. Some of the classic comps in both places have been pretty heavily trafficked, though. There are some really nice patches of flowers along Kebler Pass Road. Afternoon storms were pretty consistent and American had one pretty scary one with lots of lightening, some snow on the peaks and minor flooding across the road down to Lake City.

--Jeff

I just returned from Colorado. I had originally planned on going to American / Ice Lake Basin but in the end because of my inexperience in the backcountry and my fitness level I decided that it would be better to try something a little easier and work my way up to one of those destinations.

So...I went to the Maroon Bells (since I have wanted to go there for a long time anyway). I don't frequently hear of the Maroon Bells as a wildflower destination but I saw a wide range of wildflowers including columbine, paintbrush, alpine sunflowers (I think), chiming bells (I think), and lots of Cow Parsnip...and those are just the ones that I know. I hiked both along the scenic loop near Maroon Lake and also up to Crater Lake. There were plenty wildflowers to see in both places.

The wildflowers may not be as numerous as in other locations but there was still plenty to enjoy.

By the way, although I didn't end up going to American / Ice Lake Basin I appreciate the feedback from everyone who provided helpful information that allowed me to honestly assess whether I was ready for such a trip.

Went up to Vail Pass and Mayflower gulch yesterday. They both have a ways to go. Not as many columbines at the rock outcroppings
as i have have seen in past years. Paintbrushes just starting on Vail Pass- maybe another week??

I hiked on the Indian Point Trail on the Grand Mesa today up to the Flowing Park loop. The lupine was crazy! So was sneezeweed, white indian paint, prairie smoke, groundsel, snakeweed, shrubby cinquefoil, yarrow (yellow & white), purple small leaf penstemon, fairy trumpets, larkspur and some columbine. Road 109 off Lands' End had some great displays. I may head back tomorrow.

Had so much fun yesterday, went back to the mesa today. This was shot at Lands End & 109 and is pretty representative of what I saw up there. Saw TONS of nodding sunflowers on Lands End, along with 3 marmots (though none of them posed for me.) Further out on Lands End, the flowers become shorter but are still profuse with lots of lupine, aster, yarrow, prairie smoke, larkspur, etc. and even saw a sego lilly.

There's lots of flowers, including fields of columbine, along Peru Creek near Montezuma. Not as good as Crested Butte but it's the best I've seen near Montezuma.

Has anyone been in the La Plata's yet? Just wondering how the bloom is going there. Most likely I won't be able to get there until the middle of next week.

I just spent July 15 - to 22 camped near Silverton and taking pictures around the Alpine loop.There were some surprises for me as I usually go a week or two later. Minnie and Maggie were pretty dang good. Placer and Picayune were much better than average. AB was not quite there yet, but columbines were many. Snap shot example of Placer Gulch:

I was up at Mayflower Gulch last night. The flowers are somewhat sparse throughout much of the valley, but there's a large, dense cluster of bluebells and sunflower-type flowers up near the cabins.

I'm not sure if this info will be useful to anyone, but I just spent several days in the mountains of eastern Nevada, and there are some very nice flower displays out there right now. They're at their best on medium-high elevation sage slopes, 8,000'-9,000', and in riparian areas. If anyone happens to be passing through that country, it would be well worth making some time to explore a bit. I was in Great Basin NP, the Schells and the Rubies, but I expect most of the bigger ranges out there would have similar conditions.

Those heading to the San Juans should take a look at Clear Lake -- the north side of the lake has some great dense patches of mixed flowers. I checked out American and YB basins and would heavily lean toward American Basin as it seems to have not only better flowers but a much lower ratio of people to plants. Lower Ice Lake Basin was pretty good until a hail storm last Monday nipped the petals off of the more delicate flowers -- paintbrush an blueballs were still very nice and the bluebells were still yet to pop. Upper Ice lake basin seem to be lagging as there was apparently a bit of snow up there, however Island Lake has some decent flowers, espcially on hillside on the far side of the lake. As a whole, the Juans should be good all week. Visitors to the West Fork off Owl Creek Pass shoudl be wary of a large and vocal heard of Angus that apparently has free range of the wilderness area. Not only are they eating everything and tearing up the turf, they seem to be out for revenge and not shy about firing off #2's on tents and cars.

I stopped at Shrine Pass on the way to Moab yesterday, and the wildflowers up there are very plentiful! I would highly recommend getting there soon (this weekend should be great).
There are lots of Paintbrush (with the deepest reds I can ever recall), columbine along the creeks near the road, bluebells, and more.
I'll try to post some photos here, but I'm working on a laptop with a uncalibrated monitor, and everything looks horrible on it.

John De Bord asked me to pass along this update...

Boreas is completely insane with wildflowers at the moment on the Breck side a mile or 2 from the summit. I have never seen anything like it in my life, it is fields of wild sunflowers completely coating the ground. Also, on the opposite side along the hillside there is a Jeep trail that goes up to an old abandoned cabin. It is a short hike but very steep, the entire alpine forest is coated with wildflowers...Lupine, Paint Brush...others which I don't know and it looks like someone coated the entire ground with Lucky Charms.

Clear Lake is past peak for wildflowers. A series of bad rain/hail have stripped a lot of the wildflowers of their pedals, and they were not plentiful to begin with. There are a few areas in the pass that look good, but for the most part nothing crazy.

I just got back from American Basin and it is still very good there, I don't know what it looks like at its peak but it was pretty amazing. Most of the flowers looked really healthy too, so unless there are some nasty storms this week I would still recommend going up there!

Stony Pass looked good & fresh and simply amazing for the last mile and a half or so from the Silverton side of the pass when I left there on Friday. All the rain lately seems to be extending the life of this year's bloom. If we can avoid hail...

The slopes around Lookout Lake in Snowy Range, Wyoming are covered in Columbine. There are also some nice patches of Avalanche Lilly. Someone said there are alot of Columbine near South Gap Lake but I didn't get a chance to get up there. The Sugarloaf area at Snowy Range provides the closest access to South Gap Lake is a fee area. I am not sure how much the forest service is charging now.

The flowers around Clear Lake near Silverton, CO are incredible right now. There are fields of rosy paintbrush and a lot of other flowers are still in excellent condition. Well worth a trip if you are in the area in the next few days. There is some road damage that makes a high clearance 4-wheel drive essential to get up to the basin by vehicle.