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Colorado Mountain Wildflowers — wk 30



Saturday night, I was camping in the aspen forests on Kebler Pass. On the next morning, I found several Green Gentian flowers at the side of a creek. These flowers typically grow over 6 feet in height. Rather than attempting to capture the whole plant, I chose this detail of some of the flowers growing around the central stem.

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Green Gentian In Aspen Forest.

At the base of Kebler Pass are several beaver ponds. In this image, I captured the reflections of the pine trees in the still water.

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Pine Tree Reflections In Beaver Pond.

I have never seen so many summer flowers in Kebler Pass as in this year. The winter snows and snow melt contributed to the large fields of flowers in the area. Heading up the pass, several flowers were backlit by the morning sun.

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Larkspur Flowers On Kebler Pass.

Fields full of yellow Mule’s Ears flowers covered large meadows and open spaces in the forests.

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Mule’s Ears On Kebler Pass.

In this image, I attempted to capture the large variety of flowers on the hillsides.

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Wildflowers On Hillside, Ohio Creek Valley.

The mountains were full of bird calls from a variety of different birds that spend their summer in the mountains of Colorado. Several specifies that I found included Rufous Hummingbirds, Cordillera Flycatchers, Robins and Sparrows. There were also some raptors that included Northern Harriers and Red-Tailed Hawks.

Indian Paint Brush flowers were found every where. I found a spot where several dozen of these flowers were growing in the shade

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Indian Paint Brush Flowers.

Another flower that appears to be similar to a yellow paint brush is the Sulphur Flower. I found this single flower growing next to an aspen tree at the roadside.

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Single Sulphur Flower Next To Aspen Tree.

There were several of these flowers also growing at the roadside. I don’t know the name of these flowers.

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Flowers At Roadside, Ohio Creek.

Returning home, I drove along the Crystal River, stopping at a location where several large boulders sit in the river and shore. About this time last year, the river was almost empty. This year, with all the snow from the winter and the snow melt, the river was flowing vigorously. A couple of week ago, the river caused flooding of some houses along the riverside.

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Vigorous Water Flow In The Crystal River.

That was the end of a fabulous weekend of mountain wildflowers and bird life.

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