Guanella Pass in the Rocky Mountains

Winter enhances memories of summer. Here is a July visit to Guanella Pass, in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. 

Rocky Mountains, central Colorado, July

We drove up from Georgetown, winding steeply up Guanella Pass Road. The town, at 8,200', dropped away. Up, and up some more. A good road and not very busy that summer morning.

The pass is open only part of the year, usually from the end of May (Memorial Day) through mid November. This year warm temperatures and low snowfall allowed it to stay open until December 1, but a pair recent snowstorms dropped 13" of snow, and the road is now closed until the snow melts in spring of 2026.

At the top, where the pass is 11,670' in elevation, is a big parking lot. It is the trailhead for a number of hiking trails, but also an enticing place to stop. 

sneezeweed, probably Hymenoxys hoopesii
and a bumblebee Bombus

There were quite spectacular plants in and on the edge of the parking lot, like the sneezeweed above, but if you crossed the band of shrubs at the edge of the parking lot (there was a path), a beautiful meadow spread before you, rich in flowers of many colors

Reds from Indian paintbrush (Castilleja miniata, in the broomrape family, Orobanchaceae).

red Indian paintbrush, Castilleja miniata

Red-purple flowers of fireweed, probably dwarf fireweed, Chaemerion latifolium (evening primrose family, Onagraceae).

Another species of Indian paintbrush, this one yellow, probably the tundra Indian paintbrush, Castilleja occidentalis. They are called Indian paintbrushes in part because the very similar-looking species have flowers from white to pink to red to yellow to orange. 

tundra Indian paintbrush, Castilleja occidentalis

Blue tall bluebells (Mertensia ciliata, borage family Boraginaceae) 

 tall bluebells Mertensia ciliata

 

and white. Here are pussy toes (Antennaria, in the sunflower family Asteraceae) probably Antennaria rosea, pink pussytoes, despite looking brown in my photo; they're a bit past flowering. The open white flowers are mouse ear chickweed (Cerastium arvense in the carnation family, Caryophyllaceae). 

pussytoes and mouse ear chickweed

A gorgeous place.

Here is another of my favorite mountain wildflowers, common harebells, also called bluebells of Scotland (Campanula rotundifolia, bellflower family, Campanulaceae.)

common harebell, Campanula rotundifolia

And this penstemon, Whipple's penstemon (Penstemon whippleanus)

Whipple's penstemon (Penstemon whippleanus)

I spotted a dozen other plant species easily, and bees and butterflies were actively pollinating. I could have watched the insects for a long time. It was an easy and rewarding place for a stroll looking at flowers. 

Looking up, grand vistas stretched away in all directions

A beautiful place 

Another view from the parking lot, hazy because it was hazy.

Comments and corrections welcome.

Kathy Keeler, A Wandering Botanist
More at awanderingbotanist.com
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