Summit County Citizens Voice

Not one, but TWO national wildflower weeks

A meadow at Pass Lake, near Loveland Pass, in full bloom.

SUMMIT COUNTY — Although the high country was buried by a spring snowstorm this past week, that didn’t prevent people in other parts of the country from celebrating national wildflower week, as declared by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. The idea was for the Federal Interagency Plant Conservation Alliance to join together to celebrate the diversity of plants and plant habitats found on the nation’s public lands. Click here to learn more about plant conservation efforts and scheduled wildflower events on public lands.

And it turns out there was a second wildflower week, from May 2 to May 8, organized by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin. We still have some time to go before we get into the heart of our wildflower season here, but despite the snow, the blossoms are starting to pop on some of the drier, low-elevation slopes. Try a walk up the lower part of the Ptarmigan Trail to see some of the earliest blooms. And if you can’t wait, enjoy today’s photoblog, with some wildflower highlights from past years.

Dreamy blue in mid-summer.

White violets are often among the first wildflowers to bloom along the Lilypad Lake trail near Frisco, Colorado.

Marsh marigolds often bloom at the edge of receding snowbanks.

Early summer wildflowers at Pass Lake, Loveland Pass, Colorado.

Shasta daisies bloom in the Meadow Creek wetlands, Frisco, Colorado.

Wild geranium.

Seed head.

Filed under: biodiversity, daily photoblog, Environment, Morning photo, photography, seasons, US Forest Service Tagged: | Frisco Colorado, Loveland Pass, outdoors, recreation, Summit County Colorado, wildflowers