in March and early April, these storms reverse course. Moist air pours in from the east, hits the foothills of the Rockies, rises and cools. These upslope storms sometimes dump as much as 20 or 30 inches of snow on the eastern side of the Continental Divide. Often these storms have light winds, so the snow plasters every peak and loads every tree,

In the Colorado Rockies, for example, the first tundra flowers appear in early June, but the most showy tundra flowers, the alpine sunflowers, don’t appear until late June or early July. The columbine, Indian paintbrush, and heartleaf arnica usually peak in mid- to late July. A heavy snow year can delay the cycle by weeks.

The basin surrounding the headwaters of the East Fork of the Crystal River, below Hasley and West Maroon Passes, holds the richest flower fields I’ve ever seen in Colorado.