Rocky Mountain High-2010

These are the Ruby Peaks high up in the mountains of Colorado. This is where we spent a week. It is where we found peace and tranquility. It is where we found simple joys from nature. It is where I would still love to be.
We camped at Lake Irwin which is outside of Crested Butte, high up in the Rocky Mountains. We have been coming to this campsite for 30 years. It has changed over the years--we think the word must have gotten out as it was pretty crowded this year. We can remember when there were always open campsites. That is no longer the case. You have to reserve your campsite in the winter. But, who wouldn't want to come to the cool air and get away from life for a while!
One of the things we love to do while camping is to hike. This is Judd Falls, one of the many water falls we hiked to.
Another thing we like to do is fish in the lake. We catch and release our fish, so our technique makes fishing a little more challenging, but we had great luck and caught quite a few fish that were released back into the lake. And then, there are the flowers....
oh my goodness how beautiful are the wildflowers! I took many pictures..let me show you just a few..

These are Gentain or Monument Plants. We see them every year, but what was so interesting this year-they were blooming! They only bloom every 10 years, so we felt pretty lucky to see them.
The buds and blooms are not very showy, but put them in a big meadow and they really stand out!





Of course we saw lots of columbine, Colorado's state flower. We camp pretty high up (10,000 ft) so we have columbine all around.


These are called Sky Pilot. You smell them before you see them. No, they don't have a wonderful sweet fragrance-they smell like a skunk!
The meadows were full of these alpine sunflowers. They are always one of my favorites. There are so many yellow wildflowers in the Rockies I couldn't begin to try and identify all of them. And because they cross pollinate-they are hard for even the experts. The nick names for the yellows up here is "DYT" --"Darn Yellow Things!"
This is a ferny-leafed white flower with a very distinctive spicy sweet smell. It is named Osha and looks very much like our Queen Anne's Lace. It is everywhere! I saw one meadow that looked solid white because there were so many of these pretty flowers.
This is called Jacob's Ladder. I wish I could have gotten a better picture for you-it is such a sweet little flower. You can't tell, but it is a very light blue and usually grows under trees and other plants. I never see them in lower elevations, only up in the mountains.
This is an Elephantella, or Elephant Head. It is really an unusual plant with little flowers that have the look of a tiny elephant head.
There are a lot of Scarlet Paintbrush (which look like our Indian Paintbrush here in Texas) in Colorado, but this is a Rosy Paintbrush which is very hard to find. I was so excited to come across quite a few of these on one of our hikes.

There are so many other wildflowers we saw: asters, lupines, daisies, wild geraniums, sneeze weed, cow's parsnip, chokeberry, wild roses..oh I could go on and on. As you can see, I was very content and happy to just sit in the middle of a meadow surrounded by all these happy flowers.

John Muir once said "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." How very true this statement is. Our cares did seem to fall off, and we find a peace in the mountains like no other. Thank you Colorado, for your streams and rivers; for your beautiful lakes; and for your cool weather and spectacular flowers. We do indeed find a Rocky Mountain High and can't wait to come back again soon!