Apex Park in June

Thursday night, I ran at Apex Park near Golden, Colorado for the first time this year. On odd numbered days, mountain bikers can only go one way on some of the Apex trails. Thursday was an even day so there was a lot of bike traffic. My favorite trail at Apex is Enchanted Forest because I love wooded trails. They are so peaceful! I have been taking my new Garmin GPS watch on my trail runs this summer and finally signed up on Garmin Connect so I can upload my runs and see the map, elevation gain, etc. I am not concerned about speed on my trail runs because of the elevation gains. I did find it interesting that I spent 15 minutes of this run not moving. Do I really stop that much to take pictures?

One of the things that I like about Apex is that I can pretty much count on seeing deer next to the trail. This week I only saw one - you can barely see it in my photo.

I was a little bit disappointed in the wildflowers that I saw this week, though I shouldn't have been. This was a week for Lupine to shine; last week it was Beardtongue. The wild pink roses were really pretty. I also saw Cranesbill geraniums, Toadflax and Dwarf Golden Asters. The asters seem to thrive in these dry rocky areas.

Lupine

Dwarf Golden Asters

Lupine and Toadflax

Lupine flowers are usually purple in color but this week I spotted a white one. I also saw one of the few red wildflowers I have ever photographed, a controlled weed called Houndstongue.  Jefferson County Parks has a list of noxious weeds on their website, which includes flowers that I didn't know were on the controlled list - like Toadflax.

White Lupine

This week, I also managed to see something new. The white flower below is one I couldn't find on any of my favorite Colorado wildflower websites but the leaves sure look like a Meadow or Canada Anemone.

Meadow Anemone

I also found the Colorado State Flower, Columbine on the Enchanted Forest trail. Even though this is the state flower, I don't see a lot of them in the foothills. I think it is too dry and hot.

Fifteen minutes of not moving according to my GPS = 15 pictures of wildflowers/wildlife (8 shared on this post) plus a rested heart!