Me and the littlest took a quick late afternoon trek up to see the subalpine forest and alpine tundra. Other than passing a few souls on their way home, we pretty much had the whole mountain to ourselves. The temperature when we started out was only 10 C and the wind was hard to keep your hat on insane. I was glad that I brought rain suits and an extra sweater for the littlest, otherwise, I think we would have been cold.
The flowers were stunning - paintbrush in white, cream, 4 shades of pink and red, purple aster, yellow and white avens, arnica, saxifrage, moss campion, Saussurea densa, fireweed, vetch, alpine forget-me-not, rocky mountain goldenrod, luetkea pectinata or smelowskia calycina (not sure which), shrubby cinquefoil, stonecrop, and I think my hard to identify thick-rooted spring beauty plant found way up in a gravelly, shaded crevice. If anyone has a different identification, let me know, I struggled with this one.Today, even at a much lower altitude there is fresh snow on the mountain top.
To think last week we were melting in the heat an today, I'm wishing I had a warmer sweater on, inside...!!!
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White and Yellow Mountain Avens |
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Moss Campion |
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Thick rooted spring beauty - Claytonia Megarrhiza????
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Paintbrush |
Labels: barrens, Canada, flowers, Natural History, wildflowers