Warning: this post contains lots of boring flower pictures and their corresponding boring scientific Latin names.
I took the day off Friday and took Miles and Ian to the Wasatch Wildflower Festival. We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon in the morning and parked at the base of Brighton Ski Resort. The volunteers were all excited when we arrived because we were the first ones of the day. We had our own private guide take us on a hike and show us all the wildflowers. It was overcast and we had a few light rain showers, but it was a great respite from the desert valley heat.
In this picture the white flowers are Richardson's geranium (Geranium richardsonii), the black ones are western coneflower (Rudbeckia occidentalis), the red ones are Indian paintbrush (Castilleja spp), the purple ones are monkshood (Aconitum columbianum), the yellow ones are groundsel (Senecio spp) and the big white one is
false hellebore (Veratrum viride).
If you look closely at this flower it looks like a bunch of elephant heads on a stick, thus the common name of elephant heads (Pedicularis groenlandica). It grows in wet marshes and along streams.
We saw lots of these plants last week in Millcreek Canyon, but they weren't in bloom and we couldn't figure out what they were. Our guide told us these are false hellebore (Veratrum viride).
It was raining earlier in the morning and everything was wet. All the volunteers had jackets and long pants and we felt a little unprepared in our shorts and t-shirts. But we only got a few sprinkles and the day turned out really nice. I liked this arrangement of monkshood or wolf's bane (Acontium columbianum) with paintbrush (Castilleja spp). There are lots of varieties of paintbrush and they mingle between each other so I'm not sure which ones these are. Painbrush are interesting because they are semi-parasitic and their colors may change depending upon the host plant.
I was excited to see a white version of Monkshood. We had never seen one before.
We saw these beautiful pink Lewis monkey flowers (Mimulus lewisii) growing out of a rivulet.
There is a lot of variety of buckwheat or sulphur flowers (Eriogonum spp.) growing up there.
Ian and Miles were great hiking buddies. Miles took most of the photos (at least the ones that turned out).
We enjoyed this patch of fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) growing near the top of the trail. After the big Yellowstone fires in 1988 fireweed was the first plant to appear and start to stabilize the soil.
We saw this American pika scurrying back and forth between boulders, he was carrying little branches of leaves and grass onto a pile on a boulder.
Pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) has nice little white flowers which last for a long time (thus the name). This is a flower I've enjoyed growing in my own garden.
I was really excited to find this flower, Monardella odoratissima, which is also known as mountain coyote mint, mountain beebalm, and mountain pennyroyal. When you touch the leaves, your fingers are left with a wonderful mint smell.
Here is a closeup of the blooms.
The sky mostly cleared up when we got up to Lake Mary. It was so nice to be outdoors and the lake is just stunning.
We took a break on a boulder and enjoyed the view. We had trail mix for a snack and soon we were accosted by a scurry of cheeky chubby chipmunks. They ran all over trying to get our food. They were hilarious to watch.
On our way back down we saw some yellow monkey flower (Mimulus guttatus).
This is the approximate site of the fateful ski accident of 2009. I don't think I've been up here since then.
We were driving down the mountain when on a whim we decided to take Guardsman Pass over the mountain. The road was very steep and very rough in places, but we were rewarded by some awesome views of the mountains and valleys below. We were glad we took it. It felt like we were on a mini vacation in a remote forest.
We ended up in Midway and we went and saw the crater. Miles and Ian's have great-great grandparents who immigrated to Midway from Switerland which makes them 1/8 Swiss. They have a little grocery store there called "The Store" that has a built in deli and pizza place. We ordered a delicious pesto mushroom and spinach pie. It was an excellent finish to a very fun outing.
1 comment:
I wish I could remember all the names. Maybe if you keep posting more flowers it will sink in. I would have enjoyed it all but the hike; I'm not quite up to something like that.
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