The Living West

First chorus frogs of the season

Image TheLivingWest April 22, 2018 0

(Photo: National Park Service) This little guy is western chorus frog (Pseudacris triseriata). Two weeks ago, hiking by a marshy area in the foothills around sunset, I was serenaded by […]

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Searching for the wild Easter flower around Boulder

TheLivingWest April 1, 2018 0

After a long, gray winter, the plasqueflower (Pulsatilla patens) bursts forth from the forest floor with five to seven beautiful, lavender petal-like sepals, adding one of the first splashes of […]

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Enjoying the snow by heading into the forest

Image TheLivingWest March 27, 2018 0

It’s always nice to get out into the forest as a snowstorm rolls in. This was taken just before a recent storm while tramping around some of my usual haunts […]

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Lion Lake No. 2

Image TheLivingWest July 13, 2017 0

If you visit Lion Lake #2 in Rocky Mountain National Park on a rainy and overcast day, when there are still lots of snowbanks around, it looks like something out […]

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Salsify Seed Head

Image TheLivingWest June 24, 2017 0

Western salsify (Tragopogon dubius) are nonnative flowers that grow in lower montane fields and in the prairie at the edges of the foothills in the Front Range. Despite being nonnative, […]

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Cactus of the Front Range

Image TheLivingWest May 20, 2017 0

Most Front Range hikers will recognize the prickly pear cactus and ball cactus, though some erroneously call the latter a barrel cactus. What many don’t realize is that this area […]

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Artemisia – a few sagebrushes of the Front Range

Image TheLivingWest May 12, 2017 0

I love sagebrush. I love its fragrance. It is one of my favorite smells in nature, second only to the occasional pockets of sweet “conifer” smell that you sometimes get […]

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Caribou Lake and the Paleo-Indians

Image TheLivingWest May 7, 2017 0

Caribou Lake lies at treeline on the west side of the Continental Divide in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, part of the Front Range of Colorado. The great western wall of […]

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Ni-chebe-chii Wood Grain

Image TheLivingWest May 4, 2017 0

Wood grain from a fallen giant, hidden in the Never Summer Mountains (Ni-chebe-chii, or Never-No-Summer in Arapaho). Sadly the bokeh isn’t perfect so oh darn, I’ll have to go hike […]

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Hummingbirds in the spring

Image TheLivingWest May 1, 2017 0

The recent spring snowstorm in the Front Range reminded me of a photo I took a few years back, in the aftermath of a similar storm. This is a female […]

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