Yesterday evening, after I had been sick and in bed most of the day, my wife, who is a fantastic cook, took pity on me and made some delicious, magic chicken soup. I highly recommend it, because this afternoon, even though it was raining, I was able to hike the lower end of one of my favorite trails, the Spring Creek trail
On the Spring Creek trail.
Spring Creek. (Because of the rain I didn’t take my tripod today, so these photos of the stream are from a trip there in May.)
and see the Tolmie star-tulips which are in bloom now in that area.
That is some incredible soup!
A brief spring rain sweeps north over the peaks across from Munson Creek
and waters the tolmie star-tulips that make their homes there.
Following a hunch yesterday, I paid a visit in the rain to the lower part of Munson Creek to see if the Tolmie Star-tulips were blooming yet. It’s still a little early, but there were already three blossoms showing: later there will be hundreds in that location.
From what I can tell, this little flower is supposed to be confined to Washington, Oregon and California only, but I guess nobody told Calochortus tolmiei because I’ve found them growing in four different locations in both the Cabinet Mountains and the Coeur d’Alene mountains here in western Montana and that’s something for which I’m very grateful: they‘re a beautiful little flower (about half an inch across) with lots of varieties.
Tolmie star-tulip, (Calochortus tolmiei)
Montana Outdoors 