Columbines

Back in my early 20′s, when I worked summers as a back country wilderness guard on the Flat Tops Wilderness, I would leave school in Gunnison and head far above Meeker before the snow in the high country really had a chance to melt. My first couple trips “up top” often were accompanied by a pair of old nordic skis and camping out at night was an exercise in finding either a place in the sprouting grass that was dry enough that I would not float away in my sleep or better hoping that the tempe...