Wildflowers at Young Gulch
Knowing that we had to keep going on hikes if we were to make our goal of hiking a 14er, we decided to go on a hike. We've been in the middle of doing some home renovation which takes most of our physical strength. But the hikes must go on.
We picked Young Gulch because we knew that we would be able to get a parking spot (it's not a very popular trail and it's a bit further up the Poudre than other hikes). We got to the trailhead pretty late, almost noon, because then we went out to take photos of the horses at the barn Katie boards her horse at (hence yesterday's post). The barn closes the pasture for the horses for a month and a half which at the end results in some pent up horses running wild.
The best and worst thing about hiking through gulches is that there's no real destination. Young Gulch ends at another road, so there's really no incentive to go all the way. So even though the trail is 10 miles all the way out and back, we only did a little over 6 miles in the course of 2 hours and 19 minutes. I'd like to blame it on the weather (it did start raining pretty good right when we turned back), but the reality was that we were both pretty tired. The best part of the hike was the wildflowers. I've never seen so many varieties of wildflowers on a single hike. Most of this post is filled with the wildflowers.
6.03 mi
2.3 hrs
6,594 ft
843 ft
Field of Yellow
This was the first spot along the trail that we realized it was wildflower season in Young Gulch.
Bridge Crossings
There were a lot of bridge crossings along the trail. They started out as legitimate bridges, then went to logs with flats cut into them, to eventually nothing.
Perfect Sky
At the beginning of the hike, the sky was a gorgeous blue with patches of clouds.
Blue Columbines
There were tons of Columbine flowers along the trail. Not uncommon, since it is Colorado's state flower, but still nice to see growing wildly and natively.
Burn Area
This area, like many of the areas that we've been hiking lately, was part of the burn area in 2012 from the Hewlett's Gulch and High Park fire. It's starting to recover in places, but it's got a long way to go until it's healed.
Pollinating
Stormy
By the time we turned around, the sky was getting dark right above us. I was thankful that it didn't rain too hard and happy that the clouds had contrasting layers that made it better to photograph than just a gray blanket across the sky.
Golden Banner
My dad was able to identify this flower for me as a golden banner.
Lupine (Cow Killers)
Katie pointed out that these white wildflowers are poisonous to cattle. Good thing we weren't taking our cow on a walk.
Burnt
These trees are still standing after almost a decade after they were burnt from the High Park and Hewlett's Gulch fires in 2012.
