By Ron Bolton
When asked her favorite color, our 2-year-old granddaughter Millie will say “red, and yellow, and blue.” If you respond, “What about purple, pink, and green?” She will quickly add them to her list.
I’m coming around to her perspective on this question of the best color. Hiking around treeline in the Rockies makes it clear that every color, on display in wildflower form, is equally splendid.
Many trailheads in Northern Colorado can get you to treeline with a modest effort. I went to the Rainbow Lakes area, which is between Ward and Nederland. From the Peak to Peak Highway, travel 5 miles on a dirt road. In spite of warnings about needing four-wheel drive, it really was no trouble for my old Honda Civic. By the way, there is a campground there too.
The trailhead is at almost 10,000 feet elevation. One trail takes you to the five main lakes on fairly level ground in less than 1.5 miles, a perfect family hike.
The other, the Arapahoe Glacier Trail, travels all the way to Arapahoe Pass if you choose, a very long haul, or turn around anywhere you like in the tundra wonderland. You reach treeline after 3 miles and a 1,400-foot climb—that’s a pretty gentle ascent.
I went 4 miles up the glacier trail and then “chose my own adventure.” I angled across the gentle tundra and descended to the trees near the snowfield that was providing the irrigation for the forest and lakes below. That meant a bushwhack for a ways to meet the easy lakes trail back.
I intend to return in the fall and go to the glacier overlook, because duh, it’s a close-up view of a glacier. For this trip, I wanted to simply get above treeline and see if any tundra flowers were hanging on during this dry year. I was amazed.
I was stopping every couple of minutes to get on the ground and take a pic of flowers framed with the green tundra and indigo sky. Flowers in the tundra are compelling as they seem unlikely, extraordinarily bright, and heroic. They boldly radiate their color, inches from the ground, seeking the attention of pollinators, for the few weeks they have to propagate.
Back down at treeline, with the snowmelt trickling through the rocks and taller flower stands, the show is just as stunning, with a few different stars.
On this day, my favorites were … never mind, how could I choose one color, let alone a specific flower?
There were about 20 different flower species in at least a dozen shades. I haven’t even raved over the alpine lakes or the majestic peaks. When those don’t even get mentioned, you know you have had a visual feast. The Creator didn’t
have to design light that separates into infinite colors in the different kinds of plants, or give us eyes that can appreciate them. But I’m grateful for it.
If you need any more persuasion to visit Rainbow Lakes, then consider the moose residents, such as the one I happened upon while bushwhacking through the willows back to the lakes trail.