McGregor Mountain Blog

The past couple of weeks has been pretty standard summer fare! The tourists are enjoy all the park and town have to offer, the thunderstorms make their daily appearance, the flowers are beautiful, and the bears have been making their rounds. This year, however, they seem to be a bit more active. Maybe they have some sixth sense that is telling them to get especially fat this year in preparation for a long hard winter. Or maybe they are just wanting to be annoying and troublesome! Either way, they are fun to have around as long as they don’t get into any trouble!

Out of the few that have been around, the big momma is that one that seems to wreak the most havoc. Here is her latest bit of work:

But she didn’t get into the dumpster! I guess it made her mad!

And, as I have said all summer, the flowers this year are truly spectacular. At the higher elevations, they have already come and gone, and Autumn is actually starting to show through the colors of the tundra, and even in some of the grasses near timberline. But here in the lower elevations, they are still blooming in full force. I’ve made good use of the Lumpy Ridge Trail and some trails in the forest on the east side of town, just to enjoy the wild flowers! We even went out and picked about 5 cups of wild raspberries and made some incredible raspberry jam from our pickings! This is a glorious time to be in Colorado!

And the reason for putting snow in the title; there was actually a light dusting of snow above, what looked like, around 13,000 feet this morning. Fall is on it’s way! Another perfect time to visit the area… elk bugling and the gold of the aspen leaves dotting the mountainsides. If you can, get up here, it is and is going to be spectacular!

With mid-summer upon us, we are all getting spoiled with our mountain paradise! The weather this season has been cool and calm, with the past week bringing rain showers every afternoon. These are more than our typical afternoon thunder bangers, these are storms that leave the skies overcast with prolonged showers that gently rain on us for hours. In a way, it’s kind of nice as it’s definitely a change from what we are used to. It’s so rare to have a truly rainy day here in Colorado and it feels nice to have something a little different for a spell. And the flowers! WOW!

If you are on the fence about coming up here, hop on over as the flowers are the best we have seen in 10 years or more! Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had the good fortune of being able to be back in some amazing places and I have been forced to stand in complete awe! Along the divide the tundra is still alive with color; in upper Glacier Gorge there are more Columbine’s than you can possibly imagine, I guarantee that your imagination can’t contain the number of flowers we saw last last Tuesday; below Black Lake the carpet of color is breathtaking; and in Wild Basin (Lion Lake #1) you enter a literal paradise of terrain, water, and color. I wish I could explain to you just what it’s like out there right now. If I could adequately portray, you would, no doubt, do anything and everything to get out here and experience it for yourself!

I went out today and snapped a few pics of some flowers around the property. These, however, don’t hold a candle to what the park is displaying right now.

And here is a little trip report that you may enjoy from one of my adventures last week… not any pictures of flowers, but some good high country adventure that you Rocky lovers will appreciate! Click HERE!

Enjoy!

Michael