Colorado Wildflowers - Mt Falcon in May

2015:

Mount Falcon was one of five trails that I visited this May, which was an unusually wet month. After four years of taking pictures of wildflowers, I am still pleasantly surprised to find new wildflowers to add to my catalog. Some of them aren't especially pretty in my opinion - like the white milkvetch below.  This was the first year for me to see Snowball Saxifrage. It reminded me of Death Camas. I am also learning to distinguish plants that have been hard for me to identify in the past.

View of Mount Morrison & Red Rocks

Milkvetch - not sure what kind

Missouri Milkvetch

Snowball Saxifrage

Sand Lily

2013:

My husband and I went on a trail run on Memorial Day at Mount Falcon Park, near Morrison, Colorado. This is one of the open spaces we use every summer for trail runs. I consider it be be one of the harder runs we do because the Turkey Trot and Castle Trails from the East parking area are steep and hot. The parking lot was full by 9 a.m. so we had to park along the road.

We tend to do most of our trail running in the evening so we usually limit our runs to six to eight miles. Since it is three miles from the East trail head to a covered picnic table just before the Summer White House site, we usually run to the picnic shelter, then turn around and head back down. On Monday, we had all the time in the world to run, so we continued on the Castle Trail and then ran on the Parmalee Trail, which is also steep in places, but more forested. I was amazed at the number of wildflowers I saw on this trail run.  The flowers were a good excuse to stop and catch my breath!

White Flowers

At first I thought that the white daisy-like flower below was an Aster but the yellow center seemed too big relative to the size of the flower petals. After searching the words Fleabane versus Aster, I have concluded that this is a Fleabane daisy because the white part of the flower is almost fringe-like. This search introduced me to the Weeds and Wildflowers page of what appears to be a family website for a woman in Utah, Sandra Bray. Her wildflower photos are listed under several different habitats - high mountains, foothills, roadsides and ditches, marshes and meadows, rocks and sand.

Fleabane Daisy

Wild Roses

Spring Beauty Flower

Purple and Pink Flowers

Beardtongue or Penstemon is one of my favorite purple flowers. I saw many clumps of them at Mount Falcon. The Weeds and Wildflowers site noted above said that the meaning of "Penstemon" is five stamens. I also took a fuzzy picture of some light pinkish purple flowers called Stork's Bill. This is a member of the geranium family. I have a couple of clumps of Cranesbill geraniums in my yard.

Beardtongue

Stork's Bill

Yellow Flowers

I had another chance to photograph a yellow flower that I had been unable to identify when I saw it a couple of weeks ago. The blooms were not fully open in my first picture but I was sure that I would be able to figure out what is was from the leaves. Not really - so many of the wildflower websites only show the blooms. So I tried to get a close up of the blooms and my photo came out kind of blurry. The photo was good enough though for me to figure out that it is a Golden Draba by searching for a yellow flower that looks a bit like Potentillas. Many of the Golden Draba photos that I found online had quite different looking leaves than the one below, but the Encyclopedia of Life photo was dead on! The paler yellow potentillas were just starting to bloom. 

2015: So the flower I thought was Golden Draba also looks a lot like Fiddle Leaf Twin Pod.

Golden Draba or Fiddle Leaf Twin Pod?

Potentilla

Yellow Violet

Orange Flower 

The Foothills Paintbrush is the state flower of Wyoming. In previous years, I've taken photos of paintbrush in July and August. I took this shot vertically because I like the spiky plant behind it.

Indian Paintbrush

There is No Stopping!

My husband and I have been members of the Colorado Athletic Club for years. When Kent started getting bored with the usual gym routine - weights and cardio machines - we started going to an outdoor fitness class led by a man named John Gillingham. 

It didn't take long to figure out that John wasn't just any fitness instructor. For one thing, he was older than most instructors. He would have been about 75 years old when we started attending his class, but he had the energy and enthusiasm of a man half his age. Kent and I were about 40 at the time and John's class was filled with people who were approaching 50 as I am today. But John's classes weren't just for the geriatric set - they were and are as hard as you want them to be.

George Wallace Park Workout

One of my favorite things about John is the way he yells out things like "There is no stopping!" Or when people are chatting, "This is not a social club!" even though it really is. Or he will yell, "You look good!" then pause and say "Some of you." John pushes us to get the most out of our workouts but he also encourages us to take it easy and do only what we can safely do if we're battling an injury or the heat. He encourages new members and is especially understanding of those who aren't used to a rigorous workout. 

Weather permitting, and sometimes even when it is cold or rainy, John's workout classes are held in the park. We run up hills and do quad killer reverse hill runs. We do squats and lunges. We do push ups and triceps dips. We skip. We sprint. We jump rope. It is, as John says, "Serious Fun" even when we're doing a Workout from Hell. 

John has a great sense of fun and playfulness. In addition to the regular park workouts, John has an annual ice block contest to see who can ride an ice block the farthest down "the big hill." We used to have an annual "duck race" down a canal that runs through the park. He proves that you're only as old as you feel as he brings out the kid inside each one of us. He shows us that there's nothing wrong with looking silly once in awhile.

2008 Duck Race

Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.    Muhammad Ali


"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Mark Twain 

John also leads workout classes at Red Rocks amphitheater on Saturdays in the spring and summer. When I first started doing the classes at Red Rocks, we pretty much had the stairs and bleachers to ourselves. Today there are so many competing groups using Red Rocks for exercise that it can be difficult for everyone to enjoy it. Yet John does everything he can to make sure that we get a good workout at Red Rocks, even adjusting his workout plan at the last minute.

Part of John's improvised workout on 5-18-13

In addition to his classes, John organizes several Club Outdoors events every year - bike rides, hikes, trail runs, and snowshoeing. He's given me and Kent the opportunity to go on a lot of adventures that we wouldn't have otherwise experienced with a great group of friends that we would not have otherwise known. Because of John, I have also discovered how much I enjoy trail running. 

I've heard John tell new students that there are a lot of Type A personalities in our class. There are certainly a lot of competitive, extroverted types and even a couple of competitive introverted types like my husband. I'm a not so competitive introvert, but John has always made me feel comfortable in class. He even gave me one of his special awards one year for being the most improved female athlete. I keep that road runner rock award on my desk at home.

In the decade that I've known John, many people have come and gone. People move away, they get married and have kids, or they just stop coming to class.  Some people come back out of the blue; for John this is like a family reunion. We have gone on hikes in the mountains and run into people that John knew 20 or 30 years ago. He doesn't forget people.

John, we wish you a happy 85th birthday! Thanks for the fun, the fitness, and the friendship. It has been emotional!

Update 6/21/2013:

Pictures from John's 85th birthday workout class in the park.

Colorado Wildflowers - Deer Creek Canyon in May

My second trail run of the season was at Deer Creek Canyon in Jefferson County, CO. This is one of my favorite parks because there are several trails to choose from, including a couple of hiker only trails, like Homesteader. The trailhead has a couple of picnic areas and restrooms. I usually manage to get in a six mile run.

The meadows down below are really green now with all the rain we've had this month. The wildflowers were also in full bloom.

Last week, I took a picture of Mouse Ear, also known as chickweed, at Chimney Gulch. They were blooming like crazy at Deer Creek. 

Mouse Ear

Since I see mostly yellow and purple wildflowers, I was pleasantly surprised to discover yet another white flower this week at Deer Creek Canyon. This perennial with fern-like leaves is called Drummond's Milkvetch. It grows in many of the western states. According to a Montana plant website, milkvetches may be toxic to livestock and wildlife.

Drummond Milkvetch

Last week, I posted a picture of one of the flowering white shrubs I saw at Chimney Gulch in Golden, CO. Below is a picture of one of the flowering trees that I saw near the streams on both trails.

One of the purple flowers that I fell in love with when I first saw it, because it is such a deep purple color (and this Wildcat loves purple!), is Larkspur. When I stopped to take a photo, the friend I was running with called it Wild Delphinium. I had to look up the flower again to make sure I got it right and found that it is known by both names.

Larkspur

Another purple flower that is blooming right now is Chiming Bells, also known as Foothills Mertensia.

Foothills Mertensia

This week, I saw a couple of yellow flowers that I did not see at Chimney Gulch - Golden Banner and Golden Groundsel. According to the Southwest Colorado Wildflowers website, Golden Banner grows quickly after snow melt. I also saw a few potentilla blooms. 

Golden Banner

Golden Groundsel

Next week my run will be at Lair O' the Bear Park where perhaps I can check in on the gnomes that were next to the trail last year.

Colorado Wildflowers - Chimney Gulch in May

2015 Update:

May of 2015 was very wet. We had our last snow the Saturday before Mother's Day. May 28th was a beautiful day so I went to Chimney Gulch for an evening trail run. One of the things I love about May is the flowering shrubs - Chokecherry, Serviceberry and Boulder Raspberry.

Narrowleaf Puccoon

Penstemon

Tufted Evening Primrose

Chokecherry

2013:

When I go on summer hikes and trail runs, I like to take my camera and take pictures of the scenery and wildflowers. As the title of this post suggests, this year I am going to post my flower pictures by month so I can chronicle how things change over the summer. This week I went on my first trail run of the year at Chimney Gulch Trail. My first two planned weekly trail runs were cancelled due to rain. We had snow on the first of May and rain frequently since then. I'm hoping the moisture will be good for my wildflower viewing well into the summer.

View of the trail looking towards Golden

Last year, when I took wildflower pictures, I tried to identify them by color by searching on sites like Wildflowers of Colorado. This site features the photography of Dr. Mary L Dubler, DVM, in Fort Collins. One of the things I like about her photographs is that you can see both the bloom and the leaves which makes it much easier to figure out the names of the flowers I photograph. I discovered that Dr. Dubler has a Facebook page so I can follow the pictures she shares this summer.

I found another link, Colorado Wildflowers, that allows you to search for wildflowers by color and by the month that they bloom. Evidently, wallflowers typically bloom in March and April but I've been lucky enough to see a few of them in May. Last year I took a picture of an orange wallflower, also in May.

Western Wallflower

I was excited to discover little white flowers called Sand Lilies, that remind me of snow crocuses. I also saw hollygrape next to the trail; this is one of the flowers that I learned to recognize this same time last year.

Sand Lily

Hollygrape

A second new flower to me was the Pasque flower. I discovered the name of this one on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Facebook page after I first visited their website to read about Staunton, a new Colorado state park that just opened southwest of Denver. According to Colorado Wildflowers, the Pasque flower is from the buttercup family and the word Pasque is French for Easter.

Pasque flower

When I ran close to a stream that runs through the park, I could smell something fragrant, possibly some  flowering shrubs.

Serviceberry

A third Colorado wildflowers website that I have visited frequently, wildflowerchild, features pictures that the photographer took on hikes from 2005-2009. She (I'm guessing) noted when and where she took her photos; many were taken in the same parks I frequent. Yet another website, Eastern Colorado Wildflowers, lets you search for wildflowers by color, zone, and month. The parks I visit most frequently are in the Foothills zone (6,500 to 8,000 feet).  

I'm not always able to identify the flowers that I photograph. There's a good chance that some of them may be weeds! (Update 5/31/2013 - the second flower below has been identified as Golden Draba.)

Myrtle Spurge (noxious weed)

Fiddle Leaf Twin Pod

Mouse ear (chickweed)