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FrontRangeLiving.com -> Outdoors -> Maroon Bells
 Wild Gardens:
Green Gentians at the Maroon Bells
By Niki Hayden
Sometimes exquisite landscape photographed by thousands of tourists ends up predictable,
even trite. The Maroon Bells are so famous that locals from Aspen quickly sum up
their major attraction as everyday fare. It's extraordinary landscape, they admit, but
beauty that they have memorized. Like so many astonishing sites taken for granted, it's also one that should not be missed.
 At the right time of the
year, you’ll glimpse a garden of green gentians with spikes taller than most
humans. Wade through their forest of spires along the trails. In the autumn, the
aspens turn golden and the gentians are studded with seedpods. Whether it’s
summer or fall, the landscape is glorious.
Shuttle buses bring throngs of tourists to the U.S. Forest Service parking
lot. Mist shrouds the geometric peaks. Draped over the mountains, the veil of
clouds creates an
eerily mystical illusion. It's too symmetrical to have been carved by nature. Or so it
seems. Perfect mountains reflected in a perfect pool. No photographer can resist
and few have tried.
The most heavily trammeled hike skirts the water's edge of Maroon Lake at the base of the mountain. The water is clear and a dark
aqua, cold and still. You might see an occasional fisherman, but these waters
are shallow with rocks clearly visible. The plants along the water’s edge,
somewhat trampled, are the sedges that line so many Colorado lakes.
 Then tall spiky columns dotted with clusters of pale green flowers take over.
Frasera speciosa, the green gentian, is also known as the monument plant
and holds a mystery. Some years the green gentians are as thick as the thin
aspen trees that line the mountain slopes. Other years, only a few can be found.
The mystery lies in what triggers the floppy-leaved plant to send up a tall
spire studded with tiny blooms. The basal growth may languish for years before
all the elements are right for a bloom. And while botanists have speculated that
just the right amount of rainfall in just the right year will set a bud for the
following year, no one really knows for sure.
 For those who associate gentians with
the mountain blue cups (Pneumonanthe
calycosa) often spied in mountain meadows, green
gentians are odd cousins. But the family includes another pale member. In
sub-alpine areas of Colorado, artic gentians (Genianodes algida), white
cups that appear to emerge from the earth less than one-inch high, hug a
hillside. In contrast, these green gentians rise tall.
In a showy year, the green gentian stands higher than most garden plants,
somewhat like agaves in bloom. Each spire is filled with hundreds of blooms and
pollinators set about the monumental task of contacting each flower. As odd as
it sounds for a plant to bloom only sporadically—and then die immediately—nature
may have a plan. Some botanists suspect that one trick to evade insect predators
is to bloom only occasionally—providing it’s the bloom they want and not the
leaves. Wait one extra year and the green gentian will bloom in an environment
where predators have been starved the previous year.
 At the Maroon Bells, the green gentians rise tall and healthy, turning to
towers of seedpods by early August. They’ll release thousands upon thousands
of seeds to germinate in future years. Immature leafy
plants that hold a bud, or bud potential, will not bloom this year. These basal plants look almost tropical with wide and floppy leaves. They’re not at
all the fleshy sedum or drought-tolerant wiry-stemmed neighbors. Green
gentians need water and here, not far from the small streams and seeping fens,
the gentians grow on moist ground. As the meadow gives way to
forest, the gentians end. Aspens grow as thickly and densely as the gentians on
dryer sloping soil as the trails wind up the mountain.
 The U. S. Forest Service manages the Maroon Bells but the entrance is similar
to our National Parks. You’ll find bathrooms and a visitors’ center. A wide
sidewalk allows accessibility for those in wheelchairs. Few
visitors care to go beyond the camera vista of the Bells. They’ll rest on wide
park benches and thrill at the close-up views available from telescopes.
Volunteers will answer any questions, explaining that the Bells are made up
mostly of sedimentary rock, red iron-rich clay. Known as the Maroon Formation,
the striated red Bells belong to the eroded ancestral Rockies of about 250 million years
ago. Rather than two mountains, the Bells are one mountain with a deep saddle.
They’ll point out that bear, elk, deer, mountain goats and marmots abound.
Mountain lions live here, too, but are not likely to be spied. In contrast, you’ll
likely see a fat marmot lounging on a rock. The lake is stocked with fish,
mostly rainbow trout. But the best reason to visit the Bells is for hiking.
 The lake trails leading through the Bells are so tame and comfortable that a
novice may be fooled into thinking the higher elevations are just as friendly.
Not so. Warnings to hikers as they head up the elevation state that intrepid
mountaineers have died on the Bells. A few memorial plaques list the names of
those who perished on this mountain.
The rock is unstable and apt to crumble under even sure-footed hikers.
Occasionally you may hear rocks tumbling down glacial drainages. There are
plenty of warnings about avalanches, too, come winter.
Elevation ranges from 7,500 to over 14,000 feet, but hiking the Maroon Bells
doesn’t mean that you have to reach the top. The trail narrows as you wind up,
soon leaving the more heavily trafficked trails behind. Once in the forest, the
green gentians are left behind. You’ll find shade-loving mosses and ferns.
There’s a scenic hike that loops around the lake and more rigorous hikes that
head up the mountain. Arrive early in the morning because thunderstorms
regularly move in by mid-afternoon. And take a camera. Everyone does. As the
clouds lift from the breath-taking Bells, you may be too rapt to point and
shoot. Enjoy the first glimpse. Then, snap a photo for posterity. It's a scene
you'll want to revisit again and again.
 Although the road is open night and day, between mid-June and Labor Day you
must take a shuttle to the parking lot between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Entrance is $10 for a car, or free with a $15 pass. From Aspen, take Highway 82
to Maroon Creek Road and drive to the Forest Service entrance station.
Helpful website: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/whiteriver/
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