Arikaree

On June 9, Mike K, Summer the intern, and I left work an hour early so we could drive the 300+ miles roundtrip to the Arikaree River. The main draw was to see "intact" prairie communities, which is more challenging than it should be, given that eastern Colorado was once covered in shortgrass prairie. Now, what hasn't been consumed by urban sprawl is mostly a patchwork of agricultural lands dotted with a few small towns.

After a quick stop at a Denver coffee shop to satisfy someone's latte addiction, we hopped on Colfax Avenue and drove east for what seemed like forever (traffic was bad, but Colfax is also really long). By and by, the commercial buildings and residential neighborhoods started to thin and then altogether disappear. Eventually Colfax fed into the major transportation artery that is I-70, which we took to the town of Byers where we exited for Hwy 36. Over the next 100 miles we drove through towns I'd never heard of: Last Chance (for what? I wondered), Anton, Joes, Cope, and finally Idalia. At this point, we were approximately 15 miles from the Colorado-Kansas border and it was 6 p.m. on a work night. We make really good decisions.

But, to back up, somewhere between the towns of Joes and Cope I noticed tall spikes of purple flowers in a grassland and told Mike to pull over. These wildflowers happened to be Penstemon grandiflorus, one of Colorado's 65 species of penstemon and perhaps the species with the largest flowers. I have several of these growing in my yard and the plant has the most fleeting blooms, so our timing must have been perfect.

At Idalia we took CR DD north through farm and ranch lands, until we reached Sandy Bluffs SWA. Along the way we made several stops for photos:

A field of needle-and-thread grass (Hesperostipa comata) waving in the breeze

Sun sedge (Carex inops ssp. heliophila) My interest in sedge has increased over the past few years because it's aesthetically beautiful and I can't have it (native sedges are mostly absent from the nursery trade--I'm hoping my coworker Brooke will change that). Unfortunately my ability to ID Carex spp. has not increased. Here's one I can ID, entirely because what other sedge is growing in the plains in full sun and with needle-and-thread grass? If only all of the blank spots in my home landscape were covered with sun sedge...

Soon we reached a series of prairie breaks: sedimentary rock outcroppings on the prairie that have been exposed by erosion. The plant is skunk bush/lemonade berry (Rhus trilobata).

Growing on top of the prairie breaks were other interesting species including Hooker's sandwort (Eremogone hookeri).

Perched atop another prairie break was a Northern Mockingbird. Since I didn't have this bird for Colorado I started an eBird checklist. Other birds seen or heard: Horned Lark, Western Kingbird, Western Meadowlark, Common Nighthawk, American Robin, a woodpecker sp., a ton of swallows, and a Ring-necked Pheasant.