Front Range Living -

Rock gardeners around the world covet two plant families: the gentians and primroses. English primroses may be most familiar to us with their tidy foliage and formal small flowers. Gentians, too, are small and compact with the bluest blue to be found anywhere. The Alps gentian has been a favorite for European rock gardeners. But our Colorado primroses and gentians are as exquisite as any and easy to discover.

Although gentians and primroses include a wide variety of species, they do share a few requirements. Most will be found in altitude and moisture. They won’t transfer to a dry, foothills garden. That’s where evening-primroses come in, because these aren’t primroses at all. In a strange misnomer of terms, evening-primroses are in a different family that often thrives on the prairie or in the foothills.

Tough and showy, evening-primroses open in the evening, most likely to attract a large moth as their pollinator. They belong to the Onagraceae family, a mirror opposite of the true primroses. Most of the Onagraceae family is at home in dry, lean, sun-drenched rocky soil. This family adapts easily to Front Range gardens, especially those seeking drought-tolerant ornamental natives.

The gauras, or whirling butterfly plants, and fireweed are members of the evening-primrose family and popular among gardeners attracted to natives. Fireweed is so named because it pops up in areas razed by fire, especially in mountainous locations. Gaura, both white and pink varieties, have jumped to the horticultural trade and show up in garden centers each spring. The scarlet gaura, Gaura coccinea, blankets roadsides on the Comanche Grasslands. Visit the grasslands or hike in the foothills throughout the summer to catch the evening-primroses. Often, they’ll be just under your feet, peeking out from under a rocky ledge. But you’ll have to journey elsewhere to see the true primroses and most gentians.

Hike on most Front Range subalpine trails and you’ll pass sweeps of shooting stars or, a bit lower in altitude, Parry’s primrose. Both come in shocking pink. Parry’s primrose gives off a noxious odor, as if to attract a fly rather than a bee as a pollinator. The shooting star is so delicate that you may not notice it nodding only a few inches high from a slender stem on a creek bank. The blossom resembles a sharp beak.

Gentians spread over a wider terrain and not all are blue. The tall spire of the monument plant is called the green gentian. Meadows of these infrequently blooming plants reside near Aspen’s Maroon Bells, but they’re found in abundance at Crested Butte, too. The fringed gentian flourishes in North Park, the arctic gentian prefers the Indian Peak Wilderness and the blue gentian, which typifies what most wildflower lovers consider as gentians, appears in montane conditions.

In Europe, gentians once were believed to hold medicinal properties in the root. But unlike other plants that have proved their medicinal mettle over the centuries, gentians are bitter tasting and somewhat toxic. It’s hard to imagine why the powdered root was assumed to aid in digestion. But the flower certainly beguiled everyone. As blue as lapis lazuli, blue gentians always cause a sensation on a hiking trail. Hike a bit farther up and the arctic gentian suddenly appears. The blossoms jut from the soil without revealing a stem, or so it appears. The speckled blue and white blooms signal the end of summer on the tundra, with snow on the way.

As diminutive as the arctic gentian may be, its sibling is the green gentian, which sends up a tall spire several feet high. The tower of pale green blooms won’t appear every year. Some years are better for blooms than others, but no one understands the trigger. The basal growth may flourish year after year without sending up a spire at all. The shiny, wide leaves unfurl to a formal mound. But waiting for a spire of blooms could take years. A few theories hold that the green gentian blooms only occasionally to fool predators. By not blooming a few years, they may break the cycle of a particular pest. Others believe moisture levels trigger the bloom. During dry years, perhaps none of these gentians will bloom, saving their best show for the right conditions. Whatever the reason, the green gentian is one of the least predictable bloomers in the mountains.

Trail hike: Arapaho Pass

Hike Arapaho Pass, in the Colorado Indian Peaks Wilderness, and you'll notice the gardens changing under your feet. Within an hour or two, mountainsides of daisies and monkshood give way to arctic gentian and white columbine. You've entered an altitude of 10,100 feet.

The trail begins at the Buckingham Campground southwest of Eldora and leads to the Fourth of July Mine. The defunct mine is a relic marked by leftover machinery and rusting equipment--an odd juxtaposition of 19th century industrial debris scattered amid an alpine environment. Working at the mine must have been daunting in the 1880s, searching for silver ore in an isolated and bleak location. But in our modern quest for recreation, getting to this tundra destination is joyful, because Arapaho Pass slowly elevates, snaking around tiny rivulets and fens that create pocket gardens of mosses and ferns.

In July and August the coolness of the mountains relieves the heat of blistering prairies not far away. Tall pink fireweed and purple monkshood blanket one portion of the trail. Within a few steps around the bend, they’ll be replaced by the more thirsty wildflowers of columbine and elephant's head.

Bees hover over fields of wildflowers and butterflies delicately bound onto daisy platforms. But in the subalpine fields the pollinators are more likely to be flies and moths struggling to collect as much nectar or pollen as possible before the brief summer wanes. It's likely by Labor Day that snow will obscure this trail. Within one week, the warmth from the sun's rays disappears and winter closes in.

On an August day, a white-tailed ptarmigan, with spotted gray, black and white plumage, can be discerned faintly from the spotted gray, black and white rocks. In winter her plumage will turn white. Today she looks over a brood of two offspring, impossible to pick out of the landscape until one hops.

The seeping of water has changed from ferny glens into still pools of frigid melted snow captured in rock hollows. Low-growing willows hug the gravelly soil and trees are banished.

All along the way, blue spruce pops up among the Douglas-firs. With each twist and bend of the trail, the firs display one side with luxurious growth, the opposite side leafless and stark. Near timberline, the firs change to Englemann spruce twisted into krummholz trees, gnarled from freezing winds, one side devoid of any limbs or leaves, the other stretching out a few daring branches.

By the time you reach the Fourth of July mine, the subalpine tundra reveals an open landscape. Climbers far off in the distance can be seen snaking up the trail, over one mountain and to the next. A bright red t-shirt appears as a speck in the distance.

Blue columbines reappear as petite white columbines. Dusky purple Whipple’s penstemons change into a creamy white. Scarlet paintbrush transforms twice: first into the rosy paintbrush and then into a creamy yellow paintbrush, with a shorter, thicker stem.

The most dramatic alteration can be seen in the blue mountain gentian that loses its blue coloring to the arctic gentian. The arctic gentian, white with tiny black dots, emerges from the tundra hugging the ground closely. Nearly identical to its sister, the mountain gentian, the blue tips have disappeared, as if shed on the way up.

These astonishing bands of altitude take place within one hour of brisk hiking. Once tree line is behind, people are the tallest creatures on the trail, towering over the willows and sedges that ring pools of still water. Glaciers drip slowly into alpine lakes, clear and cold where no fish could survive. Instead, these pools slake the thirst of insects and birds, small mammals and moths, feeding into the thousands of dripping, seeping rivulets that eventually join small rivers rushing down the mountain.

It's in the shady and moist montane fens that monkeyflower, ferns, elephant's head, Jacob's ladder, shooting star and Parry's primrose will be found. A whiff of Parry's primrose emanating a rotten odor is a sign that flies are important pollinators up here.

Along the way, common harebells tremble in the slightest breeze, joining yellow heart-leaved arnica, lavender asters, pink fireweed and golden sunflowers. Brilliant colors dot the mountainsides, dominating this altitude, only to be swept away in a short distance.

Arapaho Pass is a favorite with longtime hikers--close to Boulder, Longmont and Lyons, but worlds apart in climate. In the past, any hiker could count on solitude. No more. This trail is not as heavily traveled as state parks closer to the cities, but it's no longer a full day of passing only scattered hikers.

A few of the older hikers will stop along the trail and reminisce over what once existed: a chance to see more animals, catching glimpses of the sparse tundra creatures, which barely noticed a human presence. Today they're grateful to spy a fat marmot lounging on a rock. Looking much like a beaver without a tail, the marmot is sunning himself and not inclined to leave, even with visitors talking close by.

Backpacking hikers head up the trail, their leg muscles bulging under the weight of the packs. Although backpacking is allowed with permits, campfires are not. The Indian Peaks wilderness is fragile and catches the overflow from Rocky Mountain Park visitors. The tundra landscape, like that of the park, appears as delicate as it is forbidding.

Return in two weeks and the wildflowers have changed. Spring, summer and autumn cascade from week to week and collapse into a long winter.

Sidebar: wildflowers in abundance on Arapaho Pass for July and August:

Little Elephant head	Pedicularis groenlandica
Fireweed	Chamerion angustifolium
Monkshood	Aconitum columbianum
Yellow monkeyflower	Mimulus guttatus
Western paintbrush	Castilleja occidentalis
Little sunflower	Helianthella quinquenervis
Broadleaf arnica	Arnica latiflolia
Heart-leaved arnica	Arnica cordifolia
Bistort	Bistorta bistortoides
Arctic gentian	Gentianodes algida
Tansy yarrow	Achillea lanulosa
Alpine thistle	Cirsium scopulorum
Star gentian	Swertia perennis
Whipple penstemon	Penstemon whippleanus
Common harebell	Campanula rotundifolia
Jacob's ladder	Polemonium pulcherrimum
Blue (Colorado) columbine	Aquilegia caerulea
Blue gentian	Pneumonanthe calycosa
Tall chiming bells	Mertensia ciliate
Queen's crown	Clementsia rhodantha
Shooting star	Dodecatheon pulchellum
Parry primrose	Primula parryi
Scarlet paintbrush	Castilleja miniata
Rosy paintbrush	Castilleja rhexifolia

Trail hike: Pawnee Pass

Pawnee Pass echoes Arapaho Pass with its abundance of summer wildflowers. Like Arapaho, it’s a classic Colorado hike. Both are located in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, both climb from subalpine to alpine heights. But the trail to Pawnee is wider and climbs slowly, treading through a dense Douglas-fir forest to gushes of melting snow, opening onto mountainsides of shooting stars and snow lilies.

It’s likely to be snow-packed later than Arapaho Pass and you’ll encounter mosquitoes, which you might never see at Arapaho Pass. The trail to Pawnee Pass appears wetter, winding around Long Lake and other smaller frigid ponds all the way to Isabelle Lake.

Isabelle Lake is the destination for many hikers. On a summer weekend or the Fourth of July, families with tiny children in tow will try to reach Isabelle Lake. And most make it. The lake is a true delight, opening up suddenly in a setting surrounded by snow-caked treeless rocky tips of mountains. You’re close to the Continental Divide and liable to catch inclement weather as it thunders over the mountains.

On a busy Fourth of July, a storm sweeps in, dumping hail and heavy showers. Families crouch under giant logs or dash down the trail. In one day, marble-sized hail may hammer the dainty wildflowers they exclaimed over just a few minutes ago. It’s a reminder that you are in harsh landscape, with rocks scoured and pelted frequently. Even if lower elevation temperatures are in the 90s, Pawnee Pass may turn from mild to mighty within a few minutes.

Pawnee is so water soaked when snows hang around that you’ll see a meadow of shooting stars (Dodecatheon pulchellum)--a water-loving plant that usually sprouts by a riverbank. Here it’s possible to see hundreds in one location. The snow lily (Erythronium grandiflorum), too, may be sparse elsewhere, but at Pawnee Pass, hundreds blanket a hillside in mid-July. Giant mounds of snow remain through mid-summer. Hills of snow will melt within a few weeks, eventually adding to the rush of creek water.

Along the way, in watery bogs, you’ll pass several varieties of buttercups and by the water’s edge, Parry’s primrose (Primula parryi). In shady glens you’ll find Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium pulcherrimum delicatum), and clusters of small violets (Viola adunca). On sunny trailsides both red, rosy and sulphur paintbrush (Castilleja miniata, C. rhexifolia, C. sulphurea) grow. At higher elevation, tall chiming bells, Whipple’s penstemon, (Penstemon whippleanus) in purple streaked and cream colors, spring from rock ledges. Near Isabelle Lake, if there’s been significant snow, you’ll pass a waterfall. By the time you reach the lake, the surface is placid, chilled and glassy.

Pawnee Pass attracts dog owners and hikers of various abilities and skills. Rarely is there jostling, a dog not on a leash, a hiker off-trail, flowers collected or litter. It’s as if hikers and dogs head toward the lake in hushed tones. Children, too, marvel at the lake once they glimpse the big picture. The lake is their destination and few will move on. But the trail winds higher until the trees end and loose rock continues. For a classic Colorado hike, Pawnee Pass remains unique. And while social trails have been blocked off by downed timber and signs warn not to step into areas being re-vegetated, it’s as if those on the trail cherish it enough to follow the rules.

Combine Pawnee Pass with Arapaho Pass and you’ll have hiked two of the most stunning and accessible climbs on the Front Range. Through the months of July and August the array of wildflowers can be breathtaking. But even when the flowers have faded, reaching Isabelle Lake remains as dramatic as at the height of the season.

Evening-Primroses

As if to underscore the differences between true primroses and evening-primroses, each of these distinct families rarely shares the same environment. Fireweed, in the evening-primrose family, comes the closest. It can be found in mountain places like Crested Butte where the landscape is wetter and the altitude higher. The shocking pink spire grows vigorously on disturbed soil. That explains the name because it pops up after a fire has scorched the earth.

Other evening-primroses can be found in the foothills and plains. Tough, resilient and widely adapted, gardeners are beginning to add several to drought-tolerant gardens. Variations of the common and white stemless evening-primroses join bright yellow evening-primroses in garden catalogues. In the foothills you can find the white stemless, the common evening-primrose, or the cut-leaf. On the plains, the prairie evening-primrose abounds. Yellow versions reside on the mesas and plains. Many bloom for weeks and take punishing conditions. Their blossoms are spectacular.

Another important group of sibling in this family are the gauras. Often labeled ‘Whirling Butterflies’ in the garden trade, most are not native to our region. But if you find the scarlet gaura, which grows on our mesas and plains, it’s equally lovely and worth a try in a drought-tolerant garden. The Comanche Grasslands are filled with evening-primroses of all kinds. In the spring they cover miles and miles of grasslands.

But you don’t have to travel far anywhere in the state to see this family. The foothills has at least one member of the Onagraceae family blooming at any time during spring and summer. Lory State Park in Fort Collins has the perfect conditions for the white stemless evening-primrose, a selection as beautiful as any, large white blooms tinged with pink. In the shade, these flowers will open during the day because they are primed to open in the evening. Their pollinator is a large moth and the bowl-shaped blossom glows in moonlight. Often it sprouts from under a rock, with roots hugging a bit of soil. The Well Gulch Nature Trail is the easiest trail and a favorite for wildflower fans.

Sidebar – Trail Information

Directions: From the traffic circle in Nederland, take Colorado 119 (Peak to Peak Highway) south for 0.7 miles. Turn west on Colorado 130 (Eldora Road) and travel 3.8 miles through the town of Eldora. Colorado 130 becomes a dirt road at the western edge of Eldora. Park at the Fourth of July campground, 4.75 miles up the dirt road at 39.9936N, 105.6324W.

Features: This is a popular but difficult 6-mile out-and-back hike. It starts above 10,000 feet and gains 1850 feet to the pass. The trail passes through a spectacular wildflower display at 1 mile and reaches treeline at the Fourth of July mine ruins at 2 miles. The remaining mile is through a windswept scree field but the views at the pass are memorable. Not to be missed! Pets permitted, on leash.

Directions: From Ward on Colorado 72 (Peak-to-Peak Highway), take the Brainard Lake Road west for 4.5 miles to the Long Lake parking area. The trainhead is in the Brainard Lake Recreation Area, which requires a day-use fee, and is located at 40.0784N, 105.5849W.

Features: The first half of the trail passes through the wetlands of the upper South Saint Vrain Creek and is host to many wildflowers. This part of the trail is easy, with Long Lake, at 0.5 miles, and Isabelle Lake, at 2.25 miles, popular picnicking destinations. However, at 2.25 miles, the trail starts climbing up to the pass. The 1.5-mile climb up to the pass at 12,500 feet is difficult. Pets permitted, on leash.

Directions: From Fort Collins, take US 287 north to County Road 54G (old US 287) and follow it to LaPorte. Continue through the town for 1 mile and turn left onto County Road 52E (Rist Canyon Road). At Bellvue, turn left at County Road 23N, go 1.4 miles and take a right on County Road 25G. Park entrance is another 1.6 miles. Pick up a trail map at the visitor center which is just a short distance inside the park, at 40.5906N, 105.1841W.

Features: There are numerous trails in the park; here are my favorites. Pets permitted, on leash.

Rock Garden Favorites

Gentians, Primroses and Evening-Primroses

Trail hike: Arapaho Pass

Sidebar: wildflowers in abundance on Arapaho Pass for July and August:

Trail hike: Pawnee Pass

Evening-Primroses

Sidebar – Trail Information