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Wildflowers already popping in Colorado’s high country, but peak is still a month away

John Meyer
The Denver Post
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Wildflowers are blooming in the high country between 8,500 to 9,500 feet in elevation, as this photo of Mule’s Ears taken Wednesday near Vail in Edwards shows. The peak in alpine locales, above 11,000 feet, likely won’t come until next month.
Emily Griffoul/Betty Ford Alpine Gardens

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, it’s looking incredibly green,” said Emily Griffoul, conservation scientist at the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in Vail, 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. It’s pretty exciting.”



Western Columbine, photographed recently in East Vail on the Gore Creek Trail at 9,100 feet. (Emily Griffoul/Betty Ford Alpine Gardens)
Western Columbine, photographed recently in East Vail on the Gore Creek Trail at 9,100 feet. (Emily Griffoul/Betty Ford Alpine Gardens)

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.”

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