Wolf Creek Pass is a high-mountain route that’s notoriously difficult to navigate in winter, with steep drops in elevation as the road descends from the peak. While these trees were damaged by wildfire—always a threat here in the Rockies—trees in the surrounding forest have been ravaged by a different menace—the spruce beetle. The tiny but deadly beetles have infested up to 90 percent of the Englemann spruce trees in Colorado’s high elevations, including around Wolf Creek Pass, laying waste to large swaths of the forest.
Fire-damaged forest near Wolf Creek Pass, Colorado
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Wicker fields in Cañamares, Spain
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Pascua Florida Day
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Headed to the High Country
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’Chess on ice’
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Winter in Old Nuuk
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Busy building wetlands
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Art abounds at the Palais Garnier
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Of balloons and lost pantaloons
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Brotherly cubs
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Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy
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The Girl Scouts celebrate 110 years
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Corn maze in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania
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Across the great plains of Africa
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National Mushroom Month
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Pegadung Rock, Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia
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The buzz about bees
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National Park Service anniversary
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A notorious gunfight that was incorrectly named
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Gray days ahead in Monterey
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Cue up the tango music
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Freshwater plants in Aquário Natural, Brazil
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A bridge that rocks
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A step toward freedom
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A dying breed of tree thrives in an American park
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The Millennium at 20
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International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, Harbin, China
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FOR FOREST by Klaus Littmann
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Kelp buddies
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Burrowing owls
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Reflections on the mighty Amazon