Spring Hike in the Mountains

The girls and I enjoyed an early mountain hike on Friday. The weather forecast was perfect and we’ve had so few perfect weather days, it seemed silly to stay home and work. I had heard the road was snow-free to the trailhead and beyond. We had little snow so Spring has come early to the high country.

This area burned nearly twenty years ago and many of the dead trees are still standing. Of course, some fell over during the winter. We had to make our way around, under or over them. The young trees coming in are primarily lodgepole pine. Lodgepole cones are serotinous, meaning they need fire to open and release their seeds. There are also some spruce (Englemann?) and subalpine fir. Willows are the main deciduous trees. I think the little blue flowers are Polemonium (Jacob’s ladder), the pink ones are Geum triflorum (prairie smoke) and the white ones are an Anemone. Along the road to the trailhead, multiple kinds of penstemon were in full bloom, many growing right out of the rocks.

Moose poop littered the trail but we did not see any of them. Also, there was some carnivore poop.

The dogs were delighted to see snow. I struggled to keep Willow off the ice. It was thin along the edges. She did practice her log walking and only fell in once!