Botany Peaks

 

Having gone skiing in Winter Park Colorado for over two decades, I have spent dozens of days looking up at Perry Peak which dominates the Eastern Horizon of the Winter Park Ski Area. I am confident that ninety-nine percent of the time that I looked up at the peak I said to myself, “I'm going to stand on top of that thing someday.” Well, in August I finally did!

 

Parry Peak is in the Continental Divide near Winter Park Colorado. It is named after Charles Parry, who was born in Gloucestershire, England, but moved to the United States with his parents in 1832.  He studied medicine at Columbia University, and botany under John Torrey, Asa Gray and George Engelmann.  If you are familiar with Colorado mountains, you may recognize those names.  

 

In order to get to the top of Parry Peak, I started at the Berthoud Pass Trailhead of the Continental Divide Trail. It's about six and a half miles from there to the summit. Along the way I stopped at the tops of Colorado Mines Peak, Mount Flora, and Mount Eva.  

 

It was an incredible Adventure, 20 years in the making. And I learned a lot about the history of this region, which are called the Botany Peaks. Charles Parry, as I mentioned, was a botanist and he named Grays Peak, Torrey’s Peak, Engleman Peak, and James Peak after fellow botanists.   The other Peaks I mentioned, Mount Eva, is named after his wife and Mount Flora is simply named for his favorite subject, botany.

 

While out there I also climbed James peak and visited Heart Lake in the “James Peak Wilderness”.  

 

I share all of this information, mainly so that I can share these photos I took of the incredible flowers and plants found on these mountains!  At one point I simply looked around and all I saw were jagged rocks and succulents.  What an incredible paradox of substances, and what an incredible design by our Heavenly Creator!  I was also chirped at by countless marmots and listed to the buzz of hundreds of bees, doing their work to continue the pollination of these incredible flowers. 

 

I thought the views of the mountain ranges in the distance would be the best part of this adventure, but instead it was incredible beauty of the living flora that inhabit the rocky land at 13,000 feet.