“Fire on the Rocks”

My son Stanley and I were spending a few days backpacking in the Maroon Bells / Snowmass wilderness near Aspen, Colorado, and this beautiful sea of wild flowers greeted us on day 2. We met up with a hailstorm on day 1, and set up camp just below timberline. We crossed the alpine tundra and an ocean of wildflowers and scaled a thirteener on day 2. Seasoned climbers remarked that this was the most vivid show of floral beauty they had ever seen.

Aspen, Colorado, August, 1999