Ptarmigan Cirque de Soleil et beaucoup de vent!

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...!!!

  

White and Yellow Mountain Avens    

Moss Campion

Thick rooted spring beauty - Claytonia Megarrhiza????

Paintbrush