Wyoming, a paradise for winter enthusiasts, transforms into a garden in summer. The mountain meadows of the high Rockies are world famous for their stunning wildflowers, partly because they are truly spectacular and partly because they bloom in places that would attract visitors in anyway.

A visitor may have to spend more than a vacation here to fully appreciate this colorful spectacle – the pasqueflower carpets in the foothills; the larkspur, penstemons, and blue flag on the prairie; the sunbursts of rabbitbrush in the fall sage; or the striking red of the state flower, the Indian Paintbrush.

Few places in North America can claim a greater variety of wild blossoms because few places can claim a greater variety in landform, weather and soils. Depending upon the location, visitors can visit rolling prairies, steppes, deserts, evergreen forests and alpine tundra. Wyoming's plants haven't even been adequately catalogued yet, although three or four generations of botanists have struggled with the task.

The spectrum of color in the Wyoming landscape is a reliable visual guide to the vast network of niches and lifestyles still thriving here. It is a tribute to the surprising toughness of life on earth, finding its way into every empty nook no matter how uninviting, surviving the worst the desert can inflict, and discovering a unique grace and beauty in the process. For a wildlife enthusiast or for any traveler, that's an example worth contemplating.

Quaking aspen leaves hypnotize many a visitor to the Rocky Mountain splendor of the fall season. Golden aspen trees display their brilliant fall colors with yellows, reds and oranges. Peak colors are from mid-September to early October.