Hiking the tundra in Rocky Mountain National Park is one of our favorite summer excursions from our family cabin in Colorado. We arrive early to beat the traffic to the top of Trail Ridge Road and fit in a tundra hike before the afternoon thunderstorms rise.
The short Medicine Bow trail has ptarmigans along it if you arrive early enough, but sadly, we didn’t see any this trip. Instead, two groups of elk were hanging out.
One group was bachelor bulls and the other, all of the does lorded over by one large bull.
Viewing elk was a treat at the start of the hike. The other treat lay at our feet–thousands of tiny wildflowers. Here’s the Alpine Forget-me-not to give an idea of size.
The next smallest was the moss campion.
This week, most of the tundra was carpeted in alpine avens and clover.
White dryad
Tucked away next to a low willow shrub were King’s Crown.
And my favorite, a red columbine which I believe is western columbine, though I can’t seem to find a positive identification for a pinkish alpine columbine.
Nice weather for 11,000 feet elevation in the Rockies! Becasue of the short summers up there, the flowers have to bloom fast, and change every week or so. I’m sure the next time other plants will be blooming, so we’ll go again soon.
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