Steamboat Springs, a location I’ve yet to see, was the plan for celebrating this year’s birthday. Luckily, a friend suggested a stop along the way. About 22 miles southeast of Steamboat is a side road off US-40 (Rabbit Ears Pass) to Dumont Lake. It’s just a short drive to the lake; let’s go! I’m sure the alpine lake is lovely and we could possibly see wildflowers. POSSIBLY??!! We could not have scripted a wildflower hike this beautiful!
Dumont Lake with its picnic areas and the campground up the hill is jointly maintained by the U.S. National Forest Service and Colorado Parks & Wildlife. The lake is about 50 acres sitting at 9,250 ft elevation, and is strictly a no gas-powered motors boating area with no boat-launch location. Canoes, rafts, and kayaks are popular, but you must be able to carry them to lake’s edge to launch. Makes for a delightfully quiet visit.
Continuing along the trail, every turn is more and more beautiful. This is unbelievable!
The tall pink flowers are Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium). We saw them in Yellowstone and are all around Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado. They thrive in elevations from 5,300 to 12,500 ft and can grow to 4-foot tall.
We see patches of Subalpine Buckwheat (Eriogonum subalpinum), but they don’t grow tall so can be missed.
Sunflowers amid the purple Silvery Lupine (Lupinus argenteus).
Clouds are now adding to the beauty.
Wild geraniums are shades of pink except for this one, a Richardson’s Geranium (Geranium richardsonii). Flowers are about 1″ across. We have seen no geraniums on the walk so this is a treat.
These Purple or Aspen Fleabane, also called Showy Daisy (Erigeron speciosus), are purple in the shade, but when scanning the meadows in bright sun they often look white.
White-crowned Sparrows spend summers in Alaska and arctic Canada, but live year round in the Rockies, the Pacific coast, and a few other U.S. locations. In the winter they can be found over most of the U.S. I often see them out my windows in spring, fall, and winter, but have a feeling they prefer the cool Colorado mountains in the summer.
This walk just never let’s you stop saying WOW.
Scarlet Paintbrush, also called Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata) among the yellow Alpine Aven (Geum rossii).
Looking left, looking right, it never stops being gorgeous.
Zooming in because these flies are less than an inch long. What is surprising is seeing them drink the nectar from the flowers. The plant is Fendler’s Cowbane (Oxypolis fendleri) with small heads about 2.5 inches across having 10 or more flowers on each head. They were all along the trail’s edge, and every head had two to five flies drinking away.
Have you ever tried to find a bug in an insect field guide? Nearly impossible! Even experts are stumped at times, but they can narrow down the possibilities. So after looking and looking, I think these are a kind of Tachinid fly, one of a variety of Tachinomyia. OK, now that it’s crystal clear, let’s move on.
We’re back at the trailhead, ready to continue on to Steamboat Springs. What an incredible walk. Heading down the road to leave, the beauty just doesn’t quit! Amazing.
Hope you enjoyed the wildflower walk. I’ve never experienced one as stunning as this.
Are you looking for your own beautiful places to visit? Hope so! Until next time . . .
