Peak wildflower season in the high alpine environment is likely about a month away, but wildflowers at lower elevations in the high country are popping amid luxuriant green meadows and aspen trees aglow with brilliant chartreuse leaves.
Thanks to above-average snowpack and generous spring rains in the northern mountains, hillsides are lush at 8,000 to 9,500 feet in elevation.
“Up here in Eagle County, itap looking incredibly green,” said Emily Griffoul, conservation scientist at the , the highest botanical garden in North America at 8,200 feet. “Things are in bloom, it is popping. It is so good right now. Things got so green, so fast. All of our quaking aspens have leafed out — really beautiful, really green – and lots of the flowers are coming up. Itap pretty exciting.”
In Summit County, wildflower expert Pat Taylor reports that she saw “gorgeous” flowers on a hike at Acorn Creek north of Silverthorne, adding that hillsides above Silverthorne have turned yellow with arrowleaf balsam root.
“I think the flowers are about a week early,” Taylor said. “I think it’s because of all the rains that we’ve had.”
Griffoul noticed some alpine forget-me-not and pygmy flower rock jasmine blooming on a recent hike at Loveland Pass, but there is still some snow cover up high. The same is true at Vail Pass. The alpine zone begins at about 11,000 feet.
“I would probably hike lower right now,” Griffoul said. “, so lush, and there’s a ton of wildflowers. I’ve been hiking in the Eagles Nest Wilderness and that’s really beautiful. I would say in a month, it’s going to be super in the alpine. I would say mid July to late July will be peak for the alpine.”
Taylor agreed.
“I would say do not go up to Loveland Pass and expect to find flowers,” Taylor said. “That will be maybe at the end of the month, but that might be pushing it. I would wait until mid July.”
Just how good the peak will be a month from now for wildflower hikes at high elevations is difficult to predict. So far, though, weather conditions have been generally favorable.
“We did have more snowpack than usual, which is amazing, great for water in the west,” Griffoul said. “But how much that actually translates into having a really peak bloom year is a little bit harder to predict, because it also depends on having precipitation in our monsoon season. If we don’t have that, that will really impact whether things are blooming and how long the season will last.
“As long as we keep the precipitation pattern that we currently have,” she added, “as that snowpack is melting out, and as long as itap not drying out too fast, we have the potential for a really great wildflower season.”
In the meantime, things are great below the alpine elevations.
“Itap already been a really productive wildflower season in the sub-alpine zone,” said Maggie Gaddis, executive director of the , “so people should get on out there.”
