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Monday, July 19th, 2010 - a Hike to the Grassy Meadow above Ouray
looking North as we're heading back down the trail
back down in the forest...
Here, I was looking at how one side remains moist longer, resulting in a certain kind of plant life,
while the other side is drier, resulting in another.
Since the side on the right is near the bottom of a hill section, the water tends to build up, and
big leaf plants tend to thrive...
However, since there is the hiking path between the right (upper) side and the left side
(which acts as a stream bed to carry whatever water gets through the right side away before it gets a chance to
trickle down into the soil on the left side), you see more of the stringy, small leaf, plants on the left.
Something else interesting between these two views is that it looks like there are a lot more plants
(and a much bigger variety of plant types) on the left (drier) sideversus the right (wetter) side.
I don't really know this from training, but I bet it's because, since this area generally has a drier climate,
there are less plants living here that thrive in really wet conditions, and more that thrive in drier conditions.
Thus, we see pretty much one primary plant on the right, while we could probably pick out a dozen on the left.
Another indication of the moisture disparity is the presence of moss on the right side at this point on the trail...
....and it's absence (or at least scarcity) on the left.
Anyway, back to the hike
This is one of the places I'd really like to see in the fall some time.
