Your shopping cart is empty.
Aug 17, 2019
August shows a little snow still left on Colorado’s highest peaks.
Welcome once again to my Drawn To Nature Studio blog featuring my Wildlife Photography, Sculpture, other Art, and miscellaneous musings! My goal with this blog is to present you with some of Nature’s intricate perfection and beauty, allow you to begin to understand some of the urge to create that it inspires within me, as well as offer a variety of wildlife fun facts, and provide ideas of where you might travel in search of wildlife and wild places!
Constantly (and literally) playing “King of the Mountain”, life is a constant lesson of building skills to survive in this harsh environment.
During the next several posts, come along on this late summer journey to Mt. Evans, Colorado, and enjoy its amazing wildlife, alpine and sub-alpine wildflowers, and magnificent vistas! Many people have told me that people do not read anymore. I’m not sure I believe that, but if you happen to be one of those people, please feel free to just enjoy the photography and skip the narratives!
Well above treeline, Summit Lake (which is not actually at the summit), is a wetland area where the frost heaves of water and ice play roller-coaster havoc with the road surface. Bighorn ewes are often found in this area. This shot is looking across the lake toward the top of Mt. Evans.
Usually, I try to plan this expedition earlier in the summer, just after the road finally opens for the season. However, other things in life conspired against that this year, so later than usual, my birding buddy and I finally made our yearly pilgrimage up to the top of Mt. Evans, truly one of Colorado’s best kept semi-secrets. Only an hour from downtown Denver, Mt. Evans stands at 14,264’ in elevation, one of only 53-54 “14-ers”- mountains in Colorado to reach that height.
(Seems that there is some question about this count! Apparently there has to be “at least 300 feet (91.44 meters) of topographic prominence” to be accepted as a 14-er.)
Rocky Mountain Columbine, the State Flower of Colorado
Mt. Evans has two man-made claims to fame. The road to the summit is the highest paved road in all of North America (U.S., Canada, and Mexico). At its summit stands the 3rd highest optical/infrared observatory (Meyer-Womble, U. of Den.) in the world! Sadly, due to lack of funding and interest, it is now been decommissioned and the site is slated to be razed.
A cousin to the Midwest’s groundhog or woodchuck, Yellow-bellied Marmots have their work cut out for them. Though often seen sunning on rocks, life is hard work at 14,000′, where the summer is short, and a good supply of food must be gathered in order to survive the harsh winter where snows can reach 40′!
Happy that my son, now living in Denver, was going to join us for his first glimpse of Mt. Evans, we set out early on August 4th to a beautiful sunny morning. Mt. Evans is one of the only places I know of where one can reliably see Mountain Goats up close, the ever-present Raven, plus often Bighorn Sheep, Yellow-bellied Marmots, and our increasingly endangered Pika (whose very existence is temperature-dependent, and thus climate change means life or death for them, since there is nowhere UP left for them to go.) Unlike Rocky Mountain National Park, where one is pretty much guaranteed to see elk, I have seen them only occasionally, distantly viewed while journeying up toward the summit.
Even at 14,000′, there is nectar to be had in the prolific alpine wildflowers for this Painted Lady butterfly.
Please join me next time for a look at the wide variety of summer alpine and sub-alpine flowers and plants necessary for wildlife and insects to survive in this very challenging environment!
Male White-crowned Sparrow sings hoping to woo his lady-love.
This is only visible to you because you are logged in and are authorized to manage this website. This message is not visible to other website visitors.
This means you can use the camera on your phone or tablet and superimpose any piece of art onto a wall inside of your home or business.
To use this feature, Just look for the "Live Preview AR" button when viewing any piece of art on this website!
Thank you for sharing part of your day with me! I hope you are enjoying my blog post writings and photos! I would truly love to hear any comments or suggestions you have for my posts, as well as possible locations and topics (art, wildlife, photography, etc.) that you would like to see covered in future posts!
(And PS - If you ARE getting some fun from the reading and photos, please help me widen my reach by sharing this post you are enjoying with your friends and family!)
~SAVE 20% ON YOUR FIRST PRINT ORDER~
AND BE THE FIRST TO RECEIVE NEWS OF
VIP DISCOUNTS, New Art, New Photography, and Occasional Studio News!
Enter your email below, and I'll add you to my VIP List and send you a 20% OFF coupon right now! *
* This offer is valid for NEW CUSTOMERS only!