Expectations: At each stop on this trip you will make simple observations that are intended to enhance your awareness of patch or stand and landscape scale ecosystems and their variability. Additionally, you will be asked to speculate about why some phenomena occur. You will need to know a few easy-to-learn trees to complete this field trip. A very simple key to these species is attached at the end of this document. Also, a brief classification of vegetation zones of the Rocky Mountains follows the key.

• The field trip will take most of one day. Don't wander around too much or you won't finish the field trip in a day -- remember the days are getting shorter.
• Go in groups of at least two, preferably four or five. (We'll all go together for A632)
• Start at the top (near Crown Point) and work your way down. This is how the mileage's are given and it's best to be out of the tundra before afternoon thunderstorms develop.
• Weather at this time of the year can be incredibly variable. The tundra will almost certainly be cold and windy. Take warm cloths in layers so that as you drop down from the tundra you can start to peel off some layers.
• Sturdy footwear is essential.
• Take plenty of water because at these elevations you will lose a lot of water even though it may feel cold.
• Sunglasses and sunscreen will make your day much more enjoyable.
• Drive carefully because the roads are challenging.
• If the weather turns bad, check it in. I don't want to lose anyone on this trip.

To get there: Go northwest of Fort Collins on U. S. Highway 287 to the junction with State Highway 14 (Ted's Place). Turn west on State Highway 14 and set your odometer at 0.0.

Go 26.1 miles to the Pingree Park turnoff. Turn left onto the Pingree Park Road.

Follow the Pingree Park Road for 4.2 miles (mile 30.3) to the Crown Point Road turnoff. Be careful on this section of road -- it is steep, gravely and washboardy. There are no rail guards and the bottom is a long way down.

Turn west (right) onto the Crown Point Road. Follow it 11 .7 miles (mile 42.0) to the Browns Lake Trailhead. Park here in the trailhead parking lot.
 
 
 
 

Hike about 2 miles up the Browns Lake (Crown Point) Trail. You will abruptly (relatively) break out of the forest and you will be in a mix of Krummholz and alpine tundra. You are at the starting point of the field trip. This is a view looking east from the trail.

Guide to stations for the field trip:

Stop 1. Hike up to the top of this ridge.
 

What do you see as you look to the east from the top?  What is the growth form of the vegetation you just crossed?  How many different species do you think reside here?  What do you see to the west (see image at right)? What different kinds of patches can you identify?

Look at one of these tree islands. What species make up this tree island?  Describe the base of the plant(s).  Describe how the tree islands fit into the larger landscape (where do they occur?).
Why do you think these plants and "tree islands" have their present appearance?  What besides the direct effects of wind is involved in this sculpturing?

Stop 3. Return to the trailhead parking lot.

How many species of trees occur in the immediate area (100 m) of the parking lot?
What are they?

What is the position on the landscape of the parking lot (north, south, east, west, NE, SE, SW, or SE facing slope, ridge top, bottom land)?

Describe the understory vegetation?
Roughly describe the surface of the soils in this area.

Stop 4. Set you odometer to 0.0. Go back down (to the east) the Crown Point Road (the same way you came up) 0.35 miles. Stop in a safe place and observe the ecosystem on the right (south) side of the road.
 
 

What tree species occur here?  Describe the position on the landscape of this ecosystem.
Describe the understory layer (dominantly Vaccinium sp.)? What covers the surface of the soils? (Look close!) Note the surface of the soil and then describe the soil profile exposed by the road cut. Look at the colors, thickness and depths, and rockiness.

Stop 5. Proceed 2.4 miles (mile 2.75) down the road. Observe the ecosystem on the north side of the road.
 
 

What tree species occur here?  Describe the understory layer?   Describe the position on the landscape of this ecosystem.  What covers the surface of the soils? (Look close!) Is the general surface different than that at Stop 4? Note the surface of the soil and then describe the soil profile exposed by the road cut. Look at the colors, thickness and depths, and rockiness.

Stop 6. The next stop is 0.35 miles down the road at mile 3.1. Observe the stand on the south side of the road.
 

What tree species occur here?  Describe the understory layer. Have you seen this understory before?  Describe the position on the landscape of this ecosystem.  What covers the surface of the soils? (Look close!) Is the general surface different than that at Stops 4 and 5? Note the surface of the soil and then describe the soil profile exposed by the road cut. Look at the colors, thickness and depths, and rockiness.  Contrast this ecosystem to that found at mile 0.35. What are the differences? Similarities?

Stop 7. Continue down the road another 1.8 miles to mile 4.9.
 

Describe the vegetation and debris in this open patch. What caused the patch?  What was the dominant tree species that formerly occupied this site?  Now look out across the broad landscape to the horizon. Study the patchiness of the landscape. How many different causes for this patchiness can describe?

Stop 8. Move on 1.5 miles (mile 6.4) and observe the stand on the north side of the road.

What tree species occur here?  Describe the understory layer?  Describe the position on the landscape of this ecosystem. What covers the surface of the soils? (Look close!) Is the general surface different than that at Stops 4, 5 and 6? Note the surface of the soil and then describe the soil profile exposed by the road cut. Look at the colors, thickness and depths, and rockiness.

Stop 9. Go another 0.55 miles (mile 6.95) and observe the ponds of water in the stream bed on the right side (south) of the road.
 

What caused the ponds?  What tree species occur here?  Describe the understory layer?  Describe the position on the landscape of this ecosystem.  Note the surface of the soil.

Stop 10. Continue another 4.65 miles (mile 11.6) down the road to the junction with the Pingree Park Road. Turn right!  Go 2.15 miles (mile 13.75) to a small road that goes east (left) to an aspen stand a few hundred feet (< 100 m) away. Stop at this junction. Look at the landscape as a whole in this area and the observe each patch and answer the following questions for each patch. Obviously one of the patch types has no trees!
 
 

What tree species occur in each patch?  Describe the understory layer in each patch?  Describe the position on the landscape of these ecosystems.   What covers the surface of the soils? (Look close!) Is the general surface different than that at the other stops? Note the surface of the soil and then describe the soil profiles exposed by the road cut as it passes through each patch type. Look at the colors, thickness and depths, and rockiness.
Walk in the aspen stand?  Describe the understory layer?  Describe the position on the landscape of this patch ecosystem.  What covers the surface of the soils? (Look close!) Is the general surface different than that at the other stops? Note the surface of the soil and then describe the soil profiles exposed by the road cut as it passes nearby. Look at the colors, thickness and depths, and rockiness.
Walk in the Ponderosa pine stand?  Describe the understory layer?  Describe the position on the landscape of these ecosystems.  What covers the surface of the soils? (Look close!) Is the general surface different than that at the other stops? Note the surface of the soil and then describe the soil profiles exposed by the road cut as it passes through each patch type. Look at the colors, thickness and depths, and rockiness.
Walk in the vegetation on both the inside and outside of the fenced area?  Describe the vegetation layers?  Describe the position on the landscape of these ecosystems.  What covers the surface of the soils? (Look close!) Is the general surface different than that at the other stops? Note the surface of the soil and then describe the soil profiles exposed by the road cut as it passes through each patch type. Look at the colors, thickness and depths, and rockiness. What is inside the fenced area to the east? Why is the area fenced?  Look around the forest area and see if you can see the reddish (leaves) coniferous trees. Why are they red?

Return back down the Pingree Park Road to the Intersection with Hy 14. Be Careful on this Road! At the intersection reset your odometer to 0.0. Turn right and head back to Fort Collins. Go 5.85 miles to the Narrows Campground.

Stop 11. This is your final stop! Look down canyon to the left side of the road. On the steep sides of the canyon you will see one slope the is completely forested and opposite it a slope that has no trees at all.
 
 

What is the cause of this contrast?

Adapted from William A. Weber's Rocky Mountain Flora the major vegetation zones of the Rocky Mountains are:

Alpine tundra - 3,400 to above 4,000 meters altitude. Above timberline; no trees, mostly deep-rooted mat- and cushion- plants, dwarf willows, grasses and sedges. The grassy slopes are usually referred to as alpine meadows, to distinguish these areas from the more rocky fell-fields or boulder-fields.

Subalpine - 2,700 to 3,400 meters altitude. Englemann spruce, subalpine fir, and limber pine forests interspersed with moist meadows, ponds, and bogs. Very rich in wild flowers.

Montane - 2,500 to 2,700 meters altitude. Lodgepole pine, Englemann and blue spruce, Douglas-fir, aspen and ponderosa pine. This zone is in many ways transitional between the foothills and subalpine. In many places in the Front Range this zone and the lower elevations of the subalpine have nearly pure stands of lodgepole pine.

Foothills - 1,800 to 2,500 meters altitude. Mountain mahogany at lower elevations, ponderosa pine dominates above, mixed with grassland; Douglas-fir in the north-facing ravines, and thickets of broad-leaved trees and shrubs alone the streams. Sometimes the upper elevations of this zone are called lower montane, making the montane (above) the upper montane.

Tundra 1
Tundra 2
Subalpine (spruce-fir)
Limber pine
Lodgepole pine
Lodgepole pine clearcut
Blue spruce
Ponderosa pine
Mixed forest
Foothills - mountain grassland