Sunday Afternoon Post: Where the Plains Rise

After a sweaty afternoon of tromping through a tamarack fen to eradicate Glossy Buckthorn (Frangula Alnus), a venture in which I got stuck in the fen muck quite a few times and got swarmed by every kind of insect ever, well... my thoughts turn to someplace much drier and muckless.

7 miles east of Longmont, Colorado.

This would be along US 36 Northbound at, as the title suggests, the diminutive birth of the Rockies as the Plains rise up into something resembling stubby mountains.  It's a pretty dry place, with only some junipers managing to take a lease on life and then only on the places where the slope and a slight rise in elevation both captures more moisture than normal and change the wildfire regime.  The grass cover is deceptive; there are a ton of yuccas, small cacti, and even sagebrush growing in there.