Wildflowers below Imogene Pass
I had reserved a spot on a tour to Governor Basin, but no one else signed up for this tour, and Brandi at Switzerland of America 4x4 tours in Ouray recommended that I try their tour to Imogene Pass instead. Since I'd been well satisfied with the previous tour I did with them, I agreed. Despite the fact that Imogene Pass has seldom been mentioned among the list of best spots for wildflowers in the area, this turned out to be one of the better spots that I saw on my trip. The driver and guide, Michael, took us on a small side trail just off of the main trail to Imogene Pass that had some nice flower displays, as pictured above.
Indian Paintbrush below Imogene Pass
Larkspur below Imogene Pass
Group of Paintbrush
Paintbrush and Columbine- below Imogene Pass
Bluebells and other (unidentified) wildflowers below Imogene Pass
Wildflowers below Imogene Pass
Thanks again to Brandi, Michael (tour guide) and the rest of the fine folks at Switzerland of America in Ouray for a great tour! I'd highly recommend them- and they are nice folks too!
Stay tuned for my next post, which will cover my (long) hike to Ice Lake Basin.
The view down the valley- Yankee Boy Basin
The San Juan mountains of Colorado are well-known among nature photographers for being prime locations to photograph wildflowers in the mountains. Typically, two of the best spots are Yankee Boy Basin (located near Ouray) and American Basin (located between Silverton and Lake City). In most years, the peak of the wildflower bloom in these spots occurs around the third week of July.
This May, I made my decision that I wanted to see these areas firsthand and try my luck at capturing the wildflower bloom in my photographs. I made all the necessary travel arrangements and scheduled vacation time-off from work beginning the week of July 16. You can imagine my concern when I began to read reports in the nature photography forums around July 1 that the flowers at these locations were already at peak, and fading fast. My travel plans were already made, and so I resolved to live with them and see if I could manage to get some decent photos, even if it meant changing exactly what I shot and where.
Waterfalls, Yankee Boy Basin
It is the network of abandoned mining trails in the San Juans that make many of these high elevations relatively accessible to visitors and photographers. Few of these trails can be negotiated in a regular passenger car; most have some very narrow one-lane sections and hairpin curves which require experience and caution, even in high-clearance four wheel drive vehicles. Since I was unfamiliar with the area, I decided to take a couple of tours to the spots that are covered by local 4x4 tour companies before I rented a Jeep to get to the areas where tour companies don't go.
I'd seen photos taken by others in previous years which showed thick, dense, carpets of wildflowers in Yankee Boy Basin. By the time of my arrival at this spot (July 19, 2012), all the flowers that remained were small, isolated patches located close to streams.
Yankee Boy Basin (July, 2012)
Despite the limited quantity of flowers left at Yankee boy Basin, our driver and tour guide, Dave, (with Switzerland of America in Ouray) managed to surpass my expectations by taking us on a slight detour into Governor Basin on the return.
Governor Basin
The trail to Governor Basin splits off the Camp Bird Road which goes to Yankee Boy Basin, and climbs through a series of switchbacks along narrow ledges with steep drop-offs, over a rough and rocky trail. Most of the local Jeep rental companies forbid taking their rental Jeeps into Governor Basin. Governor Basin is also at higher elevation than Yankee Boy. This year, I found the wildflowers at Governor Basin to be much more prolific and in better shape.
Governor Basin
Larkspur, Governor Basin
Although I have many more locations and photos to add to this blog, I am going to split it into several separate posts, so that it will not take viewers an excessively long time to open the post for viewing. Stay tuned for part 2, coming soon!
Wildflowers at Reflection Lake
Mt. Rainier National Park is a great spot for landscape photographers, particularly when the wildflowers bloom. The challenge is figuring out ahead of time when the flowers will be at their peak. I've gone to Mt. Rainier twice hoping to photograph the wildflower bloom, but both times I was too early, and the best areas for wildflowers were still under snow.
The photograph above was taken at Reflection Lake, which is still pretty much covered with snow and ice in the photo above. This lake is near the area called Paradise, which is the trailhead for many of the best wildflower spots. The photo below was taken at the same lake just a little ways along the shore on a different year when the snow melt was further along.
Calm Morning at Reflection Lake
Mt. Rainier along Stevens Canyon Road
The snow melt (and the wildflower bloom) progresses from the lower elevations, such as the photo above, to the higher elevations. However, it is the higher elevations that tend to produce some of the more spectacular blooms, perhaps partly due to the greater abundance of moisture.
The photo above is noteworthy in that the cloud cap shown in this photo formed on the first day of our first visit there. By a couple of hours later in the morning, this cloud cap grew and grew until it was some of the heaviest and most dense fog that you can imagine. If memory serves me correctly, it stayed so foggy for the rest of our stay on that trip that we never got another chance to see the mountain.
Mt. Rainier from Sunrise Area
The Sunrise entrance to Mt. Rainier is on the west side of the park. On our second visit to the park, although the trails around Paradise were still fully snow covered in mid-August, I was able to find these few flowers around the Sunrise area.
Mt. Rainier framed by pines- Sunrise area trail
The above photo was taken from one of the trails around the Sunrise entrance to the park. It seems to be considerably drier climate in this area than around Paradise, possibly because the Sunrise area may be in the rain shadow of the mountain. This could also account for why the trails above the Paradise visitor center have a reputation for producing a more prolific wildflower bloom. During our visit, then Vice-President Al Gore was in the local news for making an un-announced climb to the top of the mountain. In all candor, I'm not sure that I've ever been in good enough physical condition to be able to make that climb and back. Even climbing modest ridges for photos in the Sunrise area was enough to have me huffing and puffing for breath in the thin air!
Christine Falls- Mt. Rainier N.P.
Of course, there is a lot of other scenery to photograph in Mt. Rainier National Park besides wildflowers. This park has many, many waterfalls, including the one pictured above. On the last day of our visit during my most recent trip here, I hiked several miles above Christine Falls, until I ran into such heavily snow-packed trails that I decided to turn back.
Both Vickie and I consider Mt. Rainier to be one of our favorite parks. I'm hoping that someday we can return for a longer stay, and enable us to catch the wildflower bloom at it's peak! I hope my friends who view these pages can someday have a chance to visit there, too!
Bill
