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.
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.
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.
Fields full of yellow Mule’s Ears flowers covered large meadows and open spaces in the forests.
In this image, I attempted to capture the large variety of flowers on the hillsides.
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
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.
There were several of these flowers also growing at the roadside. I don’t know the name of these flowers.
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.
That was the end of a fabulous weekend of mountain wildflowers and bird life.
