First chorus frogs of the season
(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 […]
Searching for the wild Easter flower around Boulder
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 […]
Enjoying the snow by heading into the forest
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 […]
Lion Lake No. 2
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 […]
Salsify Seed Head
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, […]
Cactus of the Front Range
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 […]
Artemisia – a few sagebrushes of the Front Range
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 […]
Caribou Lake and the Paleo-Indians
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 […]
Ni-chebe-chii Wood Grain
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 […]
Hummingbirds in the spring
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 […]