We set out from Boulder and drove up to Steamboat Springs, arriving at the Mad Creek Trailhead several hours later. The large parking lot was almost completely empty.
Lovely scenic views along the way
Green Mountain Reservoir in White River National Forest
Steamboat Springs is clearly just a 'one horse town.'
The area is named after Mount Zirkel, the highest peak in the range at 12,182 feet , which itself is named after German geologist Ferdinand Zirkel (1838 - 1912).
Mt. Zirkel Wilderness is one of the original areas protected under the 1964 Wilderness Act which was passed to establish a national preservation system in order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement, does not occupy and modify all areas with the US. The wilderness has been expanded twice, in 1980 and 1993, to its present size of 160,648 acres.
A wilderness area doesn't have quite the level of governmental protection as a national park or a national monument, but it does get a little more care than a national forest. In a wilderness area, human activities are restricted to non-motorized recreation (such as backpacking, hunting, fishing, horseback riding, etc.), scientific research, and other non-invasive activities. In general, the law prohibits logging, mining, roads, mechanized vehicles (including bicycles) and other forms of development.
Our goal: follow the 1100 trail all the way to Swamp Park, stopping for one night at the junction of trails 1100 and 1118.
We had a bit of lunch, sorted our stuff, pulled on our large backpacks and headed out.
We hardly took more than a few steps when we were mesmerized by all the amazing things there were to see... the gorgeous flowers, the glittering rocks, the variety of insects...
Stopping every few feet for something new
Alfalfa (also Medic and Lucerne) is in the legume or pea family. It was possibly first cultivated over 3,000 and first sown in Colorado in 1863. In the wild, it is considered an escapee from cultivation.
There were numerous grasshoppers of all sizes and colors.
The Bee-fly resembles a small bumblebee. This allows the female to get very close to the entrance of underground nests of solitary bees and wasps. Once there, she will flick her eggs into the tunnel. The eggs hatch and the maggots crawl up to host larva and suck out their body fluids.
The adult bee-flies are far less sinister... feeding instead on nectar.
Fritillaries belong to the Longwing Butterflies. This group has roughly a 100 species world-wide and many of them look very similar.
The skipper (or skipper butterfly) is are named after its quick, darting flight habits. There are more than 3,500 recognized species of skippers.
A pair of (currently procreating) Common Thread-Waisted Wasps get intimate. The wasp builds a burrow in loose dirt in which it stores paralyzed prey. An egg is also laid in the burrow and when the wasp larva hatches, it eats the paralyzed victim until it matures and flies away from the nest. The wasps are generally not aggressive toward humans.
The Sagebrush Lizard is common at mid- to high altitudes in the western US.
A tree clings for dear life as erosion slowly pulls the ground out from underneath it.
Continuing on
Looking back down the valley
Jo & I
The cleverly-named Red-winged Bug is actually a moth in the family of Tiger and Lichen Moths.
Gold! I'm rich! I'm a happy miser! Oh, wait... it's just mica.
Oaks change to pines as the elevation increased.
Watch your step!
The trees here were still very healthy... no signs of devastation by the Mountain Pine Beetle.
There are many types of Campions (or Catchflys). Some are considered weeds in Colorado. In parts of England it is also called Grave Flower or Flower of the Dead since they are often found around graves.
We kept seeing these bizarre markings across the path. Our best guess was snake tracks.
Eventually the pines gave way to aspens.
While the pines might have been safe from the bark beetles, the aspens were clearly not safe from the tourists.
Ahead of us lay an historic barn...
... while behind us a storm seemed to be blowing in quickly.
