You are near the top of Bobcat Pass, and at about ninety-eight hundred and twenty feet this is the highest point on the Enchanted Circle. The air up here has roughly two thirds the oxygen of sea level, which you may notice if you get out and walk uphill.
This is subalpine forest — Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir, the dark pointed trees, with aspen in the clearings and along the avalanche paths. In summer these meadows carry real wildflower shows: lupine, Indian paintbrush, columbine, and the tall purple spikes of elephant head down in the wet spots.
The pass gets serious snow. Winter driving over here means chains or good snow tires and genuine attention; this is not a road to learn winter driving on, and conditions can change in an hour.
The wildlife list up here is the good one. Elk are common and are most visible at dawn and dusk in the meadows — a bull elk bugling in late September is one of the great sounds in North America. There are mule deer everywhere, black bear in the timber, and yes, the bobcats the pass is named for, though seeing one is mostly luck. Marmots and pikas live in the rockier ground. Watch for Clark's nutcracker, a grey-and-black bird that will beg at overlooks and that plants whole forests by burying pine seeds and forgetting some.
From here it is downhill — a long, curving drop into the Moreno Valley. Take it in a low gear rather than riding the brakes all the way down.
Photo: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 4.0