COLORADO WILD FLOWERS 33 



view; but, even so, the nature-lover enjoys it. Something of the artistic 

 temper seems needed for an appreciation of the beauty of this soft green. 

 There is none of the vividness which means fulness of life — that is seen 

 in the grasses of early spring — but there is a charm in the delicate-colored 

 landscape of midsummer with its dull brown of dead grass stems and 

 the soft gray of sage brush. 



Mountain Parks 



It is quite out of the question to close this very short account of 

 Colorado wild flowers without some mention of mountain parks. The 

 author has in mind Estes Park, South Boulder Park and some of the 

 valleys in Platte Canyon. A mountain park may be defined as a level 

 area in the foothill or montane district surrounded by hills and mountains. 

 Some of the parks are a few acres in extent, some are many square miles. 

 Botanically they may be considered as enclosed prairies shut off from 

 other prairies by high hills and communicating with the lowlands by 

 means of a river gorge through which flows a mountain stream. Along 

 the course of the stream there is usually a broad area with rich soil and 

 plenty of seepage water where luxuriant vegetation develops. 



Colorado belongs to the "great dry country" and there are few places 

 in the state which offer views of green meadows and winding streams. 

 But the meadows of the mountain parks are most beautifully green. 

 Even to late summer and autumn the color continues and there is a 

 sharp contrast with the dull gray and brown of hillsides or the whiteness 

 of distant snowfields on the alpine peaks. 



When we climb out of the park up the side of one of the surrounding 

 foothills and look below us we see broad level sunlit reaches, shallow 

 valleys and rolling hills. Beyond all this, across the park, are the 

 foothills which shut it in on the other side. The creek may be seen as a 

 silvery thread which winds along toward the canyon which is the outlet 

 to the park. 



There can be no adequate written description of a mountain park. 

 When the topography is described and when all the trees and grasses 

 and flowering herbs are named there are still the delicious mountain air 

 and the pure sunlight. These are forever unknown to one who lives 



