Tag Archives: wildflowers

Beautiful Summer’s Eve – San Juan Mountains

July 16, 2017 by Patrick | 0 Comments

This has been a strange wildflower season so far this summer here in the San Juan Mountains of SW Colorado.  We had record snowfall this winter following up by an extended period with no moisture this spring and summer.  The flowers came up early with some fading quickly with no rain. Only those under the flow of melting snow patches were flourishing.  

But how quickly things can change!  The Monsoon season has finally arrived although fairly weak so far.  This has really helped but you still have to hunt with some areas flourishing while others are just getting started like the area around Ice Lakes Basin.

The shot posted here was one of those places where the wildflowers are flourishing, at least in that particular spot. I was blessed to have the combination of both an incredible sky and a heathy stand of beautiful Paintbrush and other species.  It was one of the best sunsets I’ve seen in a long while which more than made up for the lackluster year so far.

I hope you are all enjoying this summer and thanks for viewing my site!

Somewhere on top of the world

June 20, 2017 by Patrick | 0 Comments

The record snowfall this winter has made access to the high country here in the San Juan Mountains rather difficult this summer.

I was finally able to break free from the snow and participate in a rare event where the grip of winter starts to give way to the summer flowers.  
Where ever a patch of alpine tundra was exposed, wildflowers are already well on their way towards taking this beautiful land over.

It looks more like Alaska up there than Colorado.  The snow fields are massive, interspersed with south facing open fields already teaming with life.  I was blessed to witness this with the added bonus of a gorgeous sunset that kept on giving. A half hour after sunset it actually became brighter with the red luminous light saturating the snow reflecting off the intense red clouds.

Looks like we are off to a great start this season…

 

Beautiful Malibu Coast

April 10, 2017 by Patrick | 0 Comments

 

 

 

 

 


 

This is a the second part of my recent trip to Southern California with the focus this time on the Malibu Coast.  The flowers here consisted mostly of Giant Coreopsis, Purple Sand Verbena, and a few California Poppies with some other varieties thrown in.  Again, the bloom this Spring was beautiful where ever I went.  

The rugged coast during sunset had a surprise element that I won’t soon forget. While setting up on a different day for another shot on the clifftop, I was fortunate to spot a pod of Grey Whales passing by right below me almost in the break zone.  I was latter told that they come in close to rub the barnacles off their bodies on the rocks.  They were migrating up to Alaska.  It was a fantastic sight to see them lunge their enormous heads out of the water along with the spray coming from their blowholes.  This went on for over an hour as they hung around my location.  There were many others who shared in this experience which made it even better.

Thanks for viewing my site and I hope your spring is going well! 

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