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:
-
Aw shucks, It s Oyster Day
-
Behold the blood moon
-
Roques de Benet, Els Ports Natural Park, Catalonia, Spain
-
Step into the dark
-
The mighty, mighty mushroom
-
Winter solstice
-
The Guggenheim turns 60
-
National Aviation Day
-
World Bee Day
-
Baddest of the badlands
-
Happy Easter!
-
A story of wind and ice
-
Veterans Day
-
World Reef Awareness Day
-
World Population Day
-
‘The memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever’
-
Sky island views
-
World Octopus Day
-
A walk among the giants
-
A visit to Limerick on Limerick Day
-
A horse of many colors
-
Mountain goats at Glacier National Park in Montana
-
Wartburg Castle overlooking Thuringian Forest in Germany
-
Pantaleu
-
Flamenco dancers
-
Craig Goch Dam in the Elan Valley of Wales
-
Why’s it called a spelling ‘bee,’ anyhow?
-
Apple Tree Day
-
’Chess on ice’
-
International Day of the Tropics