Today’s wildflower finds

This afternoon it seemed to me that I ought to check the area of West Swamp Creek (about 20 miles to the southwest of my home). Sure enough, there were several species blooming there in profusion and I was glad that I paid attention to my hunch.

Small White Violet ~ Viola macloskeyi

Both the white and yellow violets are growing right in the water of a small spring fed stream, which makes photographing them a rather wet and messy endeavor, but that’s alright because it is now warm!

Pioneer Violet ~ Viola glabella

Alpine Springbeauty ~ Claytonia megarhiza

Glacier Lily ~ Erythronium grandiflorum

Shooting Star ~ Dodecatheon pulchellum

Small Bluebells ~ Mertensia longiflora

Slender Phlox ~ Microsteris gracilis

Bluebells

This time of year, when the bluebells first start to bloom, photographing them is not an activity for the faint of heart. Near here the earliest ones can be found at about the four thousand foot level on the open but nearly vertical slopes along Forest Service road 5587 which takes off from the Weeksville road and provides access to the trail head for Big Hole Peak and Lookout. After digging footholds in the mountainside with your boots so you can climb the slope, you then get into the prone position with your toes dug in to enable you to stay there and take your photos. (A prone position on those slopes leaves you with your chin in the dirt and still only about ten degrees from vertical.) Getting back down is much harder than going up, but assuming you make it without a major injury, it’s worth it to see the first ones in bloom. (And of course, today it was raining.)

Small Bluebells ~ Mertensia longiflora

Here’s where these are growing: photo taken from the road overlooking part of the Clark Fork River valley and the upper slopes of Big Hole Peak.

Today’s wildflowers

Canary Violet ~ Viola praemorsa

Small Bluebells ~ Mertensia longiflora

Heart-leaf Springbeauty ~ Claytonia cordifolia

Bluebells

Fading away

A couple of days ago a friend and I hiked part of an old trail, probably for the last time; the Ashley Creek trail 454. It was created sometime in the 1930s, probably by the Civilian Conservation Corps by the looks of its construction, but apparently hasn’t been tended to for several years and although the Forest Service still shows it on their maps, it is going back to its earlier natural state. I am fearful that it is but one of many that the Forest Service will keep alive only on paper, probably in an attempt to show a larger than actual trail inventory as their department steadily morphs into another hopelessly incompetent and ineffectual bureaucracy. Following are some photos from along the trail.

The old trail sign still exists as it nears the century mark.

Ashley Creek is the water supply for a small Montana town.

It was a very pleasant surprise to see two species of wildflowers in bloom in a sunny spot on the mountainside along the trail, a thousand feet above the trail head. Upon perusing my photo library, I found that this is the earliest bloom for either of them that I’ve encountered by about two weeks. Who’d-a-thunk-it!

Small Bluebells, Long-flowered Lungwort, Trumpet Bluebells ~ Mertensia longiflora

Early blue violet ~ Viola adunca

It’s sad to lose another such treasure from our early days.

Today’s flora & fauna

On today’s walk with the canine member of the family:

Prairie Smoke, Old Man’s Whiskers, Purple Avens, Geum triflorum

Field Chickweed, Cerastium arvense

Early blue violet, Viola adunca

Long-flower Bluebells, Mertensia longiflora

Bighorn Sheep, Ovis canadensis