Willow ptarmigan complicated changes in plumage several times a year and the differing colour and pattern of the summer plumage: The willow ptarmigan often hybridises with the black grouse ("Tetrao tetrix") and the hazel grouse ("Tetrastes bonasia") and occasionally with the western capercaillie ("Tetrao urogallus"), the spruce grouse ("Falcipennis canadensis") and the rock ptarmigan ("Lagopus muta"). During the Pleistocene, the willow ptarmigan widely occurred in continental Europe. Authors who recognize paleosubspecies have named the Pleistocene willow ptarmigan "L. l. noaillensis" (though the older name "medius" might be the correct one). These marginally different birds are said to have gradually changed from the
Buffalo Mountain Trail the Gore Range. Looking like a fattened herbivore curled on its side beneath a covering of winter snows, Buffalo Mountain overlooks Silverthorne, Dillon, Keystone, and Frisco. Buffalo Mountain Trail ascends through a lodgepole pine forest, past exposed rock formations, into a steep boulder field of krummholz. The trail continues along the east-facing ridge to a nearly flat tundra near the summit. Buffalo Mountain offers views of the Ten Mile Range to the south, Grays Peak, 14,270 feet, and Torreys Peak, 14,267 feet, to the southeast, and the Ptarmigan Wilderness. Greatest Hikes in Central Colorado: Summit and Eagle Counties, a hiking