Summertime

We have such long winters here in the mountains that one almost forgets what summer is like. Yet, it has finally arrived and we are thoroughly enjoying it! Along with baseball games or practices every night here are a few signs that summer has indeed arrived.

Hiking Big Meadows RMNP

Recently, we hiked the Big Meadows trail at Rocky Mountain National Park. I had read somewhere that it was an easy hike. I am still getting over my view of an easy hike. Coming from Texas, my version of an easy hike is like something we did at the Nature Reserve near Fort Worth. Here that doesn't even exist. Big Meadows really was an easy hike compared to many of the hikes in the park, but not compared to Texas hikes. Regardless of whether it was easy or not, the views were awesome. It was an uphill hike, through the forest, for about 1.8 miles. The last bit was down into the big meadow. The high mountain meadow was beautiful with a clear stream running through it.  We saw two moose, squirrels and numerous mosquitoes. Round trip it was 3.8 miles. It is definitely a good hike for beginners like us.

Rocky Mountain Wildflowers- Outdoor Hour Challenge June 2013

This months Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter was Wildflowers and Weeds. Living in a new place makes our nature study feel new. We are accustomed to seeing "old friends" when we go out to look at wildflowers and most everything we see is totally unfamiliar! We did find one "old friend" on our wildflower outings- the Indian paintbrush. Purple was the most predominant flower color. We found all the colors, on the Wildflower Color Hunt bookmark from the June newsletter, except light pink. Here is a look at what we found.

 Rocky Mountain Phlox Phlox multiflora

 Yellow Pea Thermopsis rhombifolia

 Unknown

 Vase Flower Clematis hirsutissima

 Subalpine Larkspur Delphinium barbeyi

 Lupine

Indian Paintbrush

Arrowleaf balsamroot Balsamorhiza sagittata

Dusky Beardtongue Penstemon whippleanus 

 Unknown

 Prickly Rose Rosa acicularis

Unknown 

Lupines and Arrowleaf Balsamroot

These were all found very near our home. We still have some work to do on identifying a few flowers. Along with looking at our local flowers, we did take a drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park and saw some very low lying flowers at the Alpine Tundra visitor center. I thought that we got a picture, but have been disappointed that I have not been able to find it. The wind was blowing so hard up there and the temperature was rather chilly, so it is possible that I didn't get a photo. Next time I will be sure to take a picture to share these amazing wildflowers that are able to survive in such a climate.