On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
A few weeks back, I took a brief road trip to Colorado – Fremont and surrounding counties (Custer, Chafee, Park, Summit, El Paso, Pueblo). On my last afternoon, I went to two different places I used to love so much. The drive from one to the other was amazing, and I hope to finally splice together my video so I can share it.
Today I’m submitting some of the wildflower pictures I took in the late afternoon at my final stop. They aren’t much compared to many of our great submitters, but I hope I captured a bit of the beauty that was all around me.
It wasn’t truly the golden hour, but the light was just amazing for some shots. These are un-enhanced; I expect I’ll do some work on some of them once my main pc is returned from service and I can take advantage of my 4k monitor/good graphics card/better setup.
I am not a botanist, nor do I know squat about wildflowers, flowering weeds, etc., so there are no descriptions. Any expertise is welcome, and will be again tomorrow, when we enjoy part 2.
Have a great day, everybody, we’ll re-convene tomorrow.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Nice shots.
Rob
Pretty!
I believe that the third photo is of Red Clover (Trifolium pratense).
OzarkHillbilly
The first one is Indian Paintbrush.
waratah
Thank you I love photos of flowers and really love wildflower photos. We did not have a car and to save money my father always would have us walk instead of catching the bus.
My mother would always point out flowers and especially wild flowers as she knew them well from her childhood growing up in a rural area.
waratah
I think the the tall one is Coral Bells.
debbie
Beautiful!
OzarkHillbilly
As best I can figure from my Audubon guidebook, the 4th is Scarlet Gilia. The second has me stumped, it is reminiscent of lobelia with it’s petal arrangement (3 down-2 up) but I can’t find it.
@Rob: You are correct.
p.a.
Nice stuff. Do any cell cameras come with a macro function? Mine never have, or I never found it.
arrieve
Beautiful pictures. I joke that the only flowers I can reliably identify are roses and daisies, and that’s not much of an exaggeration, so I’m glad more knowledgeable commenters can supply names. I like knowing the names.
ghost cat
The second one looks like a penstemon
RedDirtGirl
So much beauty. Thank you for making the day just a little bit brighter.
Wag
@ghost cat: Correct.
It’s been a strange year for wildflowers in Colorado. Our very dense in late last in snow pack greatly delayed the peak of wildflower season. Over the Labor Day weekend, my wife and I climbed some peaks in the San Juan range. There were columbines in full bloom at just under 13,000 feet. I don’t recall seeing columbines at that altitude any year before, let alone this late in the year.
TomatoQueen
The shocking pink one strongly resembles the wild sweet pea seen at lower elevations in spring.
sky
Hi y’all. Don’t comment much, but I do plant ID as part of my job.
1 – Indian paintbrush (Castilleja)
2 – beardtongue (Penstemon, lots of species in CO)
3 – red clover
4 – scarlet gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata)
5 – foxtail barley (Hordeum jubatum)
Robert
1) Indian paintbrush
2) Penstemon, I think
3) Red clover
4) Scarlet gilla or skyrocket
5) Foxtail barley
Nice pictures. I miss that area.
StringOnAStick
@Wag: Yes, a lot of things were delayed this year here. Usually peak mountain columbine season is around my birthday in mid July,but not this year. I noted some sulfur buckwheat shrublets blooming really late too. I was occupied with recovering from serial knee replacements so I didn’t get out much at all this year; next year I’ll be back to normal if not better for hiking season.
StringOnAStick
Scarlet gilia is one of my favorite wildflowers. Sometimes it is white or the palest of pinks. It grows at lower elevations and in really dry conditions too, so it’s a tough one.
Lovely photos, Alain.
J R in WV
Great On the Road feature, Alain. Thanks for filling in.
Wag
@StringOnAStick:
It was a tough season for hiking with all the avalanche debris.
scav
Cant wait for part two.
Henry
Lovely work. I love your choices. I like going out in the Spring and taking close-ups of the smallest wildflowers.
w3ski
Mohagan
I love all the beautiful flower pictures except the last one – the fox tails. At least here in CA they are a terrible bane to animals, being well designed to burrow into flesh. Between the toes, inside the ears etc. They cause a lot of misery.