At 8,500 feet, the Wonder land sits at a transition between the foothills and the high peaks of the continental divide. Forests change from the ubiquitous ponderosa pine of the lower montane to higher and more humid spruce and fir forests, sometimes with a belt of lodgepole pine. Animals, such as elk, moose, and bear, migrate seasonally through this altitude. The forest is interspersed with grassy meadows and riparian areas. Historically, this land is fire adapted, a fact we learned most intimately in the 2020 Lefthand Fire, which burned the majority of the aspen and pine forests on the land. Existing in a relatively large pocket of intact ecology, between roads, housing developments, streams, and other barriers, we have had the fortune of acquainting ourselves with an amazing diversity of fungus, flora, and fauna that find sanctuary on the land.
Animal relatives:
- Fox
- Black bear
- Moose
- Wapiti (elk)
- Mule deer
- Pocket gopher
- Golden-mantled ground squirrel
- Abert’s squirrel
- Pine squirrel
- Chipmunk
- Great-horned Owl
- Northern Pygmy Owl
- Merriam’s Turkey
- Golden Eagle
- Bald Eagle
- Red-tailed hawk
- Common nighthawk
- Northern Flicker
- Clarks Nutcracker
- American robin
- Dark-eyed junco
- Tree Swallow
- Velvet-green swallow
- Mountain Bluebird
- Western Tanager
- Yellow-rumped warbler
- Ruby-throated Hummingbird
- Ruby-breasted grosbeak
- White-breasted nuthatch
- Mountain chickadee
Trees & Shrubs
- Ponderosa pine
- Limber pine
- Quaking aspen
- Douglas-fir
- Subalpine fir
- Engelmann spruce
- Cinquefoil
- Beetberry
- Elderberry
- Common juniper
Fungi
- Aspen bolete
- King bolete
- Fly agaric
- Russula
- Puffball
- Morel
- Oyster
Grasses, Flowers, Forbes
- Yarrow
- Cinquefoil
- Castilleja – paintbrush
- Daisy
- Aster
- Flax
- Gaillardia (firewheel)
- Sulfur flower
- Western wallflower
- Artemisia – sage
- Penstemon
- Lupine
- Pussytoes
- Astragalus/Oxytropis – vetch/locoweed
- Geranium
- Hairbell
- Goldenbanner
- Dwarf sunflower
- Lanceleaf stonecrop
- Goldenrod
- Prickly pear
- Larkspur
- Sky rocket
- Skullcaps
Our apologies to the insects, other invertebrates, lichens, myriad other fungi, bacteria, and all the species that we are either not yet acquainted with or biased against in our tendency to notice big, fluffy, and colorful things.
Wonder Land
5
acres, surrounded by National Forest open space
8,500ft
above sea level in mixed coniferous forests, meadows, and aspen
Camping & facilities
Tipi, Kitchen, bathroom, and campsites for communal use
8 Years
Communal and collective envisioning and creating, through seasons and wildfire renewal
Wonder 