Photo: Kochia. © 2020 Delena Norris-Tull
Road Logs for Colorado
These notes were taken while driving between Montana and Texas.
Summarized and prepared by Dr. Delena Norris-Tull, Professor Emerita, University of Montana Western.
[Note: all the road logs were recorded by myself or my traveling companions, Laura Tull or Debra Noble, as we drove. We occasionally stopped to verify species or collect specimens for later identification. Thus, we only recorded what we could see from the road, and could readily identify at driving speeds. Thus this evaluation is not thorough, but provides the impressions of what we observed.]
(This is part of the trip north from Montana to Texas.)
This log follows the October log from New Mexico
October 20, 2017, I-25 from Raton, New Mexico to Denver, Colorado
Just south of Pueblo, there are lots of salt-cedar trees along the river ways. We had not noticed much salt-cedar south of here.
North of Pueblo, there are very dense stands of cholla, both along the roadsides, and in the hillsides, for miles!
About ten miles north of Pueblo, there is a large river. I don’t see salt-cedar from the highway, but I do see some small stands of salt-cedar further north.
Sunflowers.
I see one stand of Russian olive beside the railroad tracks.
We see cholla until about 10-15 miles south of Colorado Springs. We see no more cholla as we drive north. But there are still quite a few yuccas. We also are seeing sagebrush.
Grasses are abundant all the way to Colorado Springs.
At Colorado Springs, there is a large, healthy-looking riverine area with large native broadleaf trees. We don’t see salt-cedar in the mix. There is possibly some Russian olive.
Rabbitbrush is now abundant along roadsides.
North of Colorado Springs, sumac along roadsides here and there. Ponderosa pine is abundant along roadsides. Mullein and grasses are also abundant.
There appear to be more diversity and abundance of herbaceous plants here, much more so than in ranchlands to the south in New Mexico. Are they natives?
Yuccas are fairly abundant. They seem to have taken over the expansion role that cholla had to the south, into New Mexico. What is the difference? Climate, soil-types?
Cattails appear in some roadside ditches.
October 24 – Denver, CO, to Wyoming border, along I-25
Within Denver, by the interstate, I see Russian olive and lots of kochia.
North of Denver, all the way to the Wyoming border, lots of kochia, with tumbleweeds rolling across the windy highway; sunflowers; yucca, and cheatgrass?
(THIS LOG IS FOLLOWED BY THE OCTOBER WYOMING LOG).
Links to additional Road Logs:
Road Logs for Colorado
These notes were taken while driving between Montana and Texas.
Summarized and prepared by Dr. Delena Norris-Tull, Professor Emerita, University of Montana Western.
[Note: all the road logs were recorded by myself or my traveling companions, Laura Tull or Debra Noble, as we drove. We occasionally stopped to verify species or collect specimens for later identification. Thus, we only recorded what we could see from the road, and could readily identify at driving speeds. Thus this evaluation is not thorough, but provides the impressions of what we observed.]
(This is part of the trip north from Montana to Texas.)
This log follows the October log from New Mexico
October 20, 2017, I-25 from Raton, New Mexico to Denver, Colorado
Just south of Pueblo, there are lots of salt-cedar trees along the river ways. We had not noticed much salt-cedar south of here.
North of Pueblo, there are very dense stands of cholla, both along the roadsides, and in the hillsides, for miles!
About ten miles north of Pueblo, there is a large river. I don’t see salt-cedar from the highway, but I do see some small stands of salt-cedar further north.
Sunflowers.
I see one stand of Russian olive beside the railroad tracks.
We see cholla until about 10-15 miles south of Colorado Springs. We see no more cholla as we drive north. But there are still quite a few yuccas. We also are seeing sagebrush.
Grasses are abundant all the way to Colorado Springs.
At Colorado Springs, there is a large, healthy-looking riverine area with large native broadleaf trees. We don’t see salt-cedar in the mix. There is possibly some Russian olive.
Rabbitbrush is now abundant along roadsides.
North of Colorado Springs, sumac along roadsides here and there. Ponderosa pine is abundant along roadsides. Mullein and grasses are also abundant.
There appear to be more diversity and abundance of herbaceous plants here, much more so than in ranchlands to the south in New Mexico. Are they natives?
Yuccas are fairly abundant. They seem to have taken over the expansion role that cholla had to the south, into New Mexico. What is the difference? Climate, soil-types?
Cattails appear in some roadside ditches.
October 24 – Denver, CO, to Wyoming border, along I-25
Within Denver, by the interstate, I see Russian olive and lots of kochia.
North of Denver, all the way to the Wyoming border, lots of kochia, with tumbleweeds rolling across the windy highway; sunflowers; yucca, and cheatgrass?
(THIS LOG IS FOLLOWED BY THE OCTOBER WYOMING LOG).
Links to additional Road Logs: