I'll Be CBing You!

I hadn't had real vacation from work in a while, so Crested Butte for a portion of a four-day weekend was such a thrill! We've been yearning to photograph the wildflower season in the high country for a couple of years or more now. Last year, neither of our jobs were accommodating. Before that, cycling training had to take precedence.

We hit the height of the wildflower season. YAY!!!










We did a small wildflower hike and a short mountain bike ride. No landlines, no computers, and the only thing we did with our smartphones was take pictures and track our cycling mileage. Oh, and check the weather... This is thunderstorm season!






I've long been a fan of the century plants I grew up amongst in New Mexico. Although we grew up hearing legends about the rope fiber- and agave-bearing titan living 100 years before blossoming one time and then dying, the native plant often lives only 10 to 30 years.


This trip, we learned Colorado has its own long-term behemoth plant, the green gentian or monument plant, which actually outlives New Mexico's agave Americana. Also known as elkweed, it spends its first 20 to 80 years as a short leafy little plant (and the leaf circles can count its years much like snake rattles). Up to three years before the showy frasera flowers, it develops microscopic stalks that eventually grow up to eight feet tall, bloom and then die. The plant has many medicinal uses. What a life!

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