Alpine or alien?

Another forum member started this awhile back when he asked some loony question about what strange, non-indigenous bird was in his photo. (I think everyone said it was a loon.)

I did a short hike a couple days ago in the Pike Nat'l Forest above Fairplay in CO, and bushwacking up above treeline in this black&white rock scree I saw this rather alien-looking plant that dwarfed its cousins, the tiny wildflowers still bloomin' like crazy in the tundra. Some were two feet tall. There weren't many, as if these seedpods had just been planted.

I'm still a newby in CO, and my hiking buddy was clueless. What is it?


The odd plant in the scree in the Pike Nat'l forest.


Another view: top of the plant is so heavy it can't keep its head up. (I think that's 14,036-foot Mt. Sherman behind.)


Close-up, with bumblebee.

My friend, who always gets up at 5a and has fallen into the bad habit of listening to talk radio at that hour, wanted to camp near one of these in the hope of being abducted by aliens that night.

Here's just a few more pix from that hike:


Saw my first pika in a long time in the same scree as those alien plants. (Beaver ponds in the background.)


Windswept pines at treeline, with part of the "Lincoln group" of 14er's (Mts. Democrat, Lincoln, Cameron and Bross) behind.


A visiting fox at hiking buddy's cabin above Fairplay after the hike. Note how the "summer" coat differs from the one in my avatar taken last May.

Thanks. Now I'm even getting off track on my own posts.

Great pictures, thank you for sharing.

Alpine Thistle, circium scopulorum

food:

I figured you'd know it. It looked like only some of them bloom each year, BTW. food, I got a SARCARD on the way out of town Monday, but didn't have to use it. Best $12 (for five years) ever spent, thanx for that info.

We have something similar down here in the Piney-Woods.
Everyone around here refers to it as bull thistle. REAL NASTY STUFF! I have some pictures of it growing to about 4ft tall.

T