Colorado Wildflowers - White Ranch in July

On the fourth of July, my husband and I did a trail run at White Ranch Park, outside Golden, Colorado. We don't visit White Ranch as often as some of the other parks in the foothills (Apex, Chimney Gulch, Lair o' the Bear, Mount Falcon) but I enjoy running there. There were a lot of other runners, mountain bikers, hikers (including a family dressed up in matching 4th of July t-shirts), and even horses on the trail.

Belcher Hill Trail is steep and rocky in places so I had to walk frequently to catch my breath. Even without the frequent walk breaks, my pace is much slower than Kent's. Kent finds it so easy to run with me that he said, not for the first time, that he would like to run a 50k (31 miles) with me. I would die! On the way up Belcher Hill Trail, there were Prairie Coneflowers and another cone-shaped flower, Prairie Clover. 

Prairie Coneflower

Prairie Clover Flower 

Our 8.5 mile run included the 2.2 mile Mustang Trail, a steep forested trail I had never been on before. I found a You Tube video of a mountain biker going down Mustang Trail. His ride took him 4.5 minutes; it took us about 35 minutes and it was hard work (for me). The trail goes through a gully so there were flowers that you typically see next to streams, like Cow Parsley. There were also some pretty clumps of Blanket Flowers.

Blanket Flower

Junction of Mustang and Belcher Hill

Black Eyed Susan

From one of the trails, Longhorn or Whippletree, there are good views of Ralston Reservoir and Upper and Lower Long Lakes.  I saw Bee Balm flowers for the first time this summer and Prickly Poppies, which have delicate blooms but as the name indicates, prickly leaves.

Bee Balm

Prickly Poppy

Field Bindweed

On the way back down Belcher Hill, we stopped to let several people on horses go by. The woman leading the pack asked me if we enjoyed our run. When I said yes, but I'm glad it's almost over, she said I was the second person who told her that!