It's been another great week of hiking! This will be a long entry, but I have a whole week to catch up on! Warren belongs to a local group of hikers called Glacier Mountaineering Society and they sponsored a lot of hikes in the Park this week. On Monday he hiked to a peak called Bearhead.
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| Starting up the south summit of Bearhead. |
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| On the south summit |
GMS has a summit list for you to check off once you've climbed a peak. Warren's goal is to reach 100 this summer; 5 years ago he got to 50, and Bearhead was #95!
On Tuesday Lynn and I did an easy flower hike in the Park to John's Lake; there are some unusual plants that grow there since it is very wet and is surrounded by dark woods. Rather bizarre, actually...
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| Sundew; this is a little carnivorous beauty! It traps insects with its sticky tentacles! |
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| Horse-hoof fungus--a very technical term. :-) |
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| Wood-nymph; in the wintergreen family |
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| Platanthera orbiculata; one of those amazing little wild orchids. |
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| Platanthera; the stalk grows between 1-2 feet tall with 2 big leaves at the base, in dark cedar woods. |
There were a few "normal" flowers as well.
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| Blue lettuce |
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| Yellow pond-lily and skater-bugs |
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| Marsh cinquefoil |
On Wednesday, Warren went on another GMS hike. We turned this one into a camping weekend since it was over on the east side of the Park and a bit of a drive back and forth. I'll explain more in a minute. This time he climbed Lone Walker Peak. #96
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| Lone Walker Peak above Upper Two Medicine Lake |
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| Snow-melt waterfalls coming down the cliff band that they had to climb up through. |
I drove up Wednesday night and met Warren in the campground. He didn't have a hike scheduled for Thursday with GMS, so we had the day to hike together. We went up to Dawson Pass where I had found a special blue columbine flower before. We looked for it, but the plants had already gone to seed.
The plants that grow up at Dawson Pass have to endure very harsh conditions--it's windy all the time up there and any storms will tend to be very intense. These little alpine plants adapt in amazing ways. This is my "purple aster on steroids;" it is actually called townsendia condensata. We found several of these.
Here is where we were:
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| trail up to Dawson Pass |
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| Looking back to where we had come from; we started at the lake on the left-hand side of the photo. |
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| At Dawson Pass, looking toward Flinch Peak |
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| A curious ground squirrel hoping for a hand-out from our lunch |
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| Peek-a-boo! |
More alpine beauties:
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| Forget-me-not |
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| Buttercup and White Dryas |
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| This clump of Pink Campion was huge and totally in bloom! |
On Friday my friend Lynn came over to hike with me while Warren did another GMS hike. We were on the Scenic Point trail and Warren was climbing Red Mountain. #97
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| Red Mountain is the peak farthest back; I am standing on Scenic Point. |
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| Zooming in on Red Mtn. |
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| Another view from Scenic Point;Two Medicine Lake at the foot of Rising Wolf Mtn, Dawson Pass is to the left. |
Lynn and I saw all kinds of alpine flower gardens on our trail. Here are some of my favorites.
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| Arctic Aster |
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| Blue Flax |
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| Rock garden with Pink Campion and Silky Phacelia |
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| Alpine Forget-Me-Nots |
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| Pygmy Bitterroot |
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| False dandelion with Rising Wolf Mtn. |
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| Alpine Bluebells |
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| Another garden fwith Paintbrush, |
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| Flower photographer at work... |
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| ...this is what I got; Alpine Fireweed |
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| Couldn't do it without my flower buddy Lynn! |
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| Hurray for the high country!! |
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