I will be headed up that way tommorrow and was wondering the same thing. The wildflower festival is just finishing up this weekend.
I called Andy Cook yesterday. He is doing a workshop up there starting today. I left a message for him specifically asking about the Robinson Basin area. Today his wife called back and said that the Robinson Basin isn't blooming yet. He was out scouting the area yesterday for his workshop.
It sounds like many of lower elevation spots are in good bloom. Here is a report from the start of the festival:
http://www.rsn.com/cams/crested/full_size_image.html?image_asset_id=5054675&party_id=1182&segment_type=mtn
Also I just called the Festival's main number to try and get some first hand info. The women I spoke with said Rustler's Gulch, the Schofield area and many other places are blooming very nice right now. She also said she went on a hike yesterday in the Cottonwood Pass area and that it was very prolific.
I just spent a few days in CB and shot with CAZ and Nat and the best spots we found were:
- Washington Gulch about 1.5miles from Gothic Rd all the way up to Paradise Divide.
- Emerald Lake : Gothic Rd on the way to Schofield Pass
- Crested Butte Cemetary - the flowers are like a carpet there and with some of the evening cloud color Mt. Crested Butte was quite the back drop.
Of the two Washington Gulch was the best with lots of variety but be sure to wear your best bee keeper outfit...the mosquitos and horse flies were unbelievable. With the swarms I was surprised they didn't show up in some of my exposures
Enjoy your trip!
Mark
Posted by Roger Rouch on July 16, 2006 at 10:38 PM
I just returned from the Crested Butte area and spent most of the time near the Schofield Pass vicinity. The flowers near timberline and just below timerline I'd say were at peak.. Probably starting to get just a little brown in some areas areas, but I'd guess another week or so with good flowers. At about timberline and upto around Frigidaire Pass and similar probably have a week or two longer and were quite nice right now. We got a little rain yesterday and maybe if that keeps up on a daily basis it will keep things going a little longer. What is there is extremely nice.
I just returned from Crested Butte tonight. Spent the entire day Saturday at Rustler's gulch which was outstanding but as Mark mentioned the flies were plentiful. Today we headed up to Robinson's Gulch which did not appear to be in full bloom, but still came back happy. Will post some shots soon.
We just spent the weekend backpacking and driving around the CB area. Our backpack went from the Oh-Be-Joyful trailhead all the way up to the far end of Democrat Basin (set up camp less than a mile from Oh-Be-Joyful Pass). The wildflowers along the hike were very average, in my opinion. There was plenty of yellow, but not much else. There were quite a few glacier lilies up near the top, but many had already bloomed and were holding the seed pods that post-bloom glacier lilies are known for. I could probably count on one hand the number of areas of paintbrush that we encountered along the entire hike as well. Very little fireweed or anything else that wasn't yellow, basically. As hot as that sun was in the open valley, I could easily see why they would be past peak.
After we wrapped up that backpack, we drove the loop from Gothic over Paradise Divide and came back down Washington Gulch. Washington Gulch was probably the best area of that section...but I do have to say that it was all horribly average compared to what we saw in the San Juans a couple of weeks ago.
you have to be an NPN member to post an image using the method that Ken just described. Otherwise, you can link to an image that is already posted elsewhere. The Posting Guidelines explain how to link to an image.
Discussion
10 repliesThanks.
Joe.
I will be headed up that way tommorrow and was wondering the same thing. The wildflower festival is just finishing up this weekend.
I called Andy Cook yesterday. He is doing a workshop up there starting today. I left a message for him specifically asking about the Robinson Basin area. Today his wife called back and said that the Robinson Basin isn't blooming yet. He was out scouting the area yesterday for his workshop.
It sounds like many of lower elevation spots are in good bloom. Here is a report from the start of the festival:
http://www.rsn.com/cams/crested/full_size_image.html?image_asset_id=5054675&party_id=1182&segment_type=mtn
Also I just called the Festival's main number to try and get some first hand info. The women I spoke with said Rustler's Gulch, the Schofield area and many other places are blooming very nice right now. She also said she went on a hike yesterday in the Cottonwood Pass area and that it was very prolific.
-Derek
- Washington Gulch about 1.5miles from Gothic Rd all the way up to Paradise Divide.
- Emerald Lake : Gothic Rd on the way to Schofield Pass
- Crested Butte Cemetary - the flowers are like a carpet there and with some of the evening cloud color Mt. Crested Butte was quite the back drop.
Of the two Washington Gulch was the best with lots of variety but be sure to wear your best bee keeper outfit...the mosquitos and horse flies were unbelievable. With the swarms I was surprised they didn't show up in some of my exposures
Enjoy your trip!
Mark
After we wrapped up that backpack, we drove the loop from Gothic over Paradise Divide and came back down Washington Gulch. Washington Gulch was probably the best area of that section...but I do have to say that it was all horribly average compared to what we saw in the San Juans a couple of weeks ago.
http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/ic.cgi?a=vp&pr=51037
Well I'm trying to embed an image anyway. html doesn't seem to be working for me. How are images embedded in replies?
I plan to be in the CB area this weekend - appreciate all the reports.
Ken
you have to be an NPN member to post an image using the method that Ken just described. Otherwise, you can link to an image that is already posted elsewhere. The Posting Guidelines explain how to link to an image.