Colorado flowers- July 10, 2016

Hello everyone.
We just spent a week in southwest Colorado. It was our first time in that part of the state. It was good. It was better than good.
The vistas, the flowers, the weather and the company combined for a great week.
There was no internet, no TV, no newspapers, and for the most part no email or cell phone coverage. Particularly this last week that made for a better week.
We are home, and there are all those things.

Here is a sample of pictures, which does not really measure up to reality, which is often the case.

A good place to start is with columbine. It is, after all, the state flower of Colorado.

They appeared in bunches. They were in the shade but also on the sunny slopes, such as the one on the right.











How about I try to crop that picture. It might give you an idea how that can change a picture.

The vistas were amazing. This view captured me. This picture was taken at Mesa Verde National Park. (more about that later) This is looking south. Faintly, about fifty miles away, you can see Shiprock Mountain. It does sort of look like a big ship riding in a misty sea.
Shiprock turns out to be...a monadnock. A what? A monadnock. That is "a residual hill or mountain, standing well above the surface of a surrounding peneplain."

We hiked trails that were "easy'" That did not mean we couldn't get to some breathtaking places. Actually that is a good term, more so at the beginning of the week. By the end of the week I could like for several hours above 11,000 feet.

As mentioned we went to Mesa Verde National Park. We went to two of the sites where the mysterious "Ancestral Pueblo People" lived about 1300 and then disappeared. No one knows why. The sites were mostly left alone until the late 1800's.  This first one is Longhouse.

This one is Cliff Palace. It seems to have been a place for visitors, rather than a permanent residence. I could not begin to tell you why they think that.
Both places were a challenge to get to, involving ladders and some climbing.







Now for some more flowers.

We have been in Colorado many times before. The Durango area was surprisingly different. There were many of these Jacobs Ladders in the shady areas.

Indian Paintbrush plants were all over, coming in many colors. There were the know red and yellow kinds. Some were more neon pink.

Here was the pink. I had not seen that before










Speaking of pink, we found these primroses up about 11,000 feet on our last day there.




That is all for this week. The garden continues to do well. I will be able to find you some good pictures for next week.

Keep moving in the right direction. The alternative is not worth considering.
Philip