Why is this titled "Columbine Heaven II?" If you haven't already, you can read here about the original Columbine Heaven we found.

Wildflower season is painfully short here in the Rocky Mountains, but it is glorious during its span and I am always anxious to be out as many days as possible. Most of my favorite fields are accessible only by 4x4 trails. So one unusually damp day this summer, Erik and I struck out with Chewie, our beloved 4-Runner with whom you are likely already familiar. I had a field in mind though I couldn’t remember exactly where it was, I tried to describe to Erik and he thought he knew what I meant. It has been a horrifically dry early summer this year. My forest yard looks absolutely pathetic with the lack of rain. Last year was a wet summer and I counted so many varieties of wildflower in bloom in my yard in one day, I took photos of twelve, those are just the ones I noticed. I doubt I’ve seen twelve flowers period of any kind in my yard so far this entire year. Other favorite fields have been sparse, as well. Sometimes we can barely wade through the grasses and flowers they're so high, this year some of those places have bare brown patches between flowers. So anyway, that is the backdrop for this day driving to see what we might find in the higher country, however sparse. It was dry as a bone at our house but by the time we got to the targeted field over in the next county it was raining pretty solidly there.

The low clouds moving in around us lent a mysterious feel as we watched them roll down the mountains and start to swirl around us.

The trailside was dotted with the occasional patch of flowers. We stopped at a cabin we’ve checked out before and found lots of shooting stars where we would have expected to but not much else in the way of flowers, and a pretty sparse showing at the target field.

So we continued to drive around, perhaps more than we might have had the showing been more profuse (for I would have spent more time outside the car looking and photographing). We drove down a trail we’ve been on before, but it had been late summer then and apparently not much was going on in the fields flanking the trail, as we’d driven right by them without comment.

This day as we traveled through the misty drizzle we noticed some columbine along the trail. Every year time after time, I still point out excitedly, “there’s a columbine!” Erik does, too, if not quite with as much glee in his voice. You’d think after awhile the novelty would wear off, but it never does and we’re still excited to point them out even though they're clearly obvious to the other person – we don't acknowledge every single one we see, of course, but a lot of them. So we began pointing out little clumps in a grove of aspens we were driving through. Wow, there were a lot. Then we emerged into an open field and a virtual carpet of columbine unrolled before us. We couldn’t believe it. We referenced our previous experience with “Columbine Heaven” in Leadville and Erik quickly dubbed this version 2, or the sequel. Our very own Columbine Heaven.

We drove, saw more. Owing to the rain I didn't exit Chewie to take photos. 

Unlike the original Columbine Heaven that I don’t know if we could find again without some random exploration and luck, we knew exactly how to get back to this one and decided the following day to return. To make sure it was real, not just a figment of our cloud-lined foggy imagination. And of course for me to take some photographs if the flowers were really there.

And huzzah! Sure enough. It was gloriously real.

I frolicked around the fields with my camera. Most of the flower bunches were just opening the first flowers in their bunch. We came back again a few days later knowing there should still be a lot of new ones opening. Indeed there were. More frolicking with my macro lens.

 We  saw a patch of white columbine, which was rare.

Then we ran into a moose who wasn’t frolicking so much as munching, but fortunately not on the columbines. Luckily they don’t seem to be on the moose’s menu. I only had my macro lens with me, but it took a decent shot of him in spite of his distance.

And then there were more columbine. Are you tired of them yet? There was a lot of golden banner and cinquefoil mixed in with them in the fields.

So after a couple weeks I wanted to go back again, knowing the columbine would likely be gone, to see if there were other flowers that flourished in the field later in the season or if it was just a heaven for columbines. There wasn’t a profusion of flowers but there were many mariposa lilies, so whatever conditions that field has to nurture the columbine, the lilies must like the same conditions. Along the way we ran into Mr. Moose again in the middle of the trail. We knew it was the same one because of the green tags in his ears (which means he has been relocated by Colorado Parks and Wildlife).

I had actually brought my wildlife lens with me in addition to my macro on the off chance we might see some wildlife again this time. So we stopped a safe distance away and I got out of the car to take a picture not through a windshield. As Mr. Moose moved up onto the hillside, I walked around the back of the car to the other side to get a picture that wasn't just of his butt. I then noticed another bull up the hillside at the edge of an aspen grove. He was larger than the tagged one and contentedly stripped leaves off the aspen. I like seeing the moose but I always feel bad for how they decimate aspen groves. This one looks somehow smug, the expression on his face.

So hurray hurray, two moose! But then my eye caught movement a little further up the hill off to the left. Cautiously I climbed slowly up the hillside to investigate and my jaw dropped a little at this big fellow calmly tearing down his section of the grove.

I motioned to Erik still sitting in the car with a gesture of, “look at this one!” But he hadn’t noticed. I knelt down and hung out snapping some photos of his impressive antlers, fascinated by the patterns of fuzz (called velvet) and veins. Can you believe the moose lose their antler racks each and every year, and grow a whole new set each year? It takes a tremendous amount of energy and calories to grow them, so they eat pretty much non-stop through the summer. If you don’t know, antlers are not make of keratin like horns are … antelope species, rhinoceros, etc. have permanent horns made of the stuff your fingernails are. Antlers are more like, say, fingers -- they grow and are nourished by blood vessels in the protective velvet. Once the antlers reach their full size (I don't know how their bodies decide this for each year), the velvet dries out and sheds off. Unlike fingers, the antlers then fall off at the end of the rutting season. 

The guy was not at all concerned with little ol’ me crouched in the weeds so I called down to Erik in the truck asking if he could see this moose. He thought I meant the other one. “No, drive closer over here, check out this one!” I clarified. Then I heard a, “Whoa!” he clearly didn’t expect a critter so much more behemoth than the others. We were both so focused on that guy for awhile we didn’t notice the middle moose had started walking my direction. When Erik did, he called out to ask if I saw him coming toward me. No I hadn't! Zoiks!

“He might cut you off,” Erik said. He was not being aggressive, it was just that his path was crossing mine. So I quick skedaddled backward to increase the distance between us and then made my way sideways back over to the trail and to Chewie.

All three fellas crossed the road, then. It's funny how daintily they run. These mammoth creatures, their forelegs tapering down to comparatively little hooves considering the bulk they are supporting. And then they kind of trot like a performing horse, at least when they are not in a hurry. 

It starting drizzling lightly. We watched them as a group from inside Chewie, savoring our very *happy* hour beer under gray skies with clear sky in the background. Do you see the moosies in the bushes?

And then the icing on the “cake” -- a rainbow appeared behind the moose.

So in many ways this field was a heaven for us this year in an otherwise somewhat dismal year for flowers. I haven’t even seen much wildlife on our property this summer. So this was definitely our special place this summer. Can’t wait to go check it out next summer!   

*

Read more Tuesday Tales

Read more articles about Colorado

Read more Three-Hour Tours