Review by Ed Quillen
Recreation – July 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
Wildflower Day Hikes – Chaffee County Colorado
by Ruth Runge-Barnes and Ann Ewing
Published in 2006 by the U.S. Forest Service and the Greater Arkansas River Nature Association
ISBN 978-0-9670604-4-6
THIS LITTLE GUIDEBOOK offers exactly what its title promises — some hiking routes for people who like to look at wildflowers in the mountains west of Buena Vista and Salida.
Aside from a few pictures, it doesn’t offer much guidance for identifying flowers; for that, you’ll need a detailed wildflower book. (Of those, my favorites are those that have descriptions like “small purple flowers” rather than “Bracts of the inflorescence scarious-margined.”)
Wildflower Day Hikes offers some sensible general hiking guidance (i.e., take water, avoid thunderstorms) and eleven area day hikes. You get directions to the trailhead and a general route description, along with a difficulty rating like “moderate” or “difficult.”
Here’s a sample: “Kroenke Lake. Length 4 miles. Difficulty Moderate. Wilderness Area. Directions: From the traffic light in Buena Vista drive north 3 blocks on US HWY 24. Turn left onto Crossman Avenue (CR 350). Go west 2 miles, then turn right onto CR 361. After 1 mile turn left onto CR 365. Continue 5 miles to North Cottonwood Trailhead at the end of the road. Hike west on Horn Fork Trail about 1.5 miles to Kroenke Lake trail junction. Follow Kroenke Lake Trail 2.5 miles to the lake.”
The page has a picture of the Whipple Penstemon, which “has wine-colored nodding clustered flowers. Its flower petals have three lobes on the bottom and two lobes above. Found on alpine slopes and along subalpine trails and open areas.”
There’s also a two-page spread on area birds, covering the most common and allowing even a non-birder like me to identify chickadees and sand-pipers. It offers a page of general mushroom guidance (learn plenty about wild fungi before you eat them) and lists local contacts for emergencies or more information. All the pictures are in splendid color.
If you want to take a walk and look at birds and wildflowers, this will point you to some good hiking in Chaffee County. It’s got just enough information to get you on the trail, while leaving the joy of further discovery to you, rather than telling you that “at mile 0.43, look 10 yards to your right for a clump of heart-leaf arnicas near the creek.”
