Snow in Glacier Park

We headed up to Glacier Park with our skis this morning for our traditional snow trek at Logan Pass.

Anna and Warren at Logan Pass, with Mt. Reynolds behind.

Looking in the direction where we'll be skiing.

 We hiked on our skis (with skins) up to the ridge on the left side of the photo just above.  Where there is a melted out place with rock and gravel (center/left), is where I waited for Warren while he climbed the ridge to take a long run--affectionately known to us as "Anna's Rock."

My view of Going-To-The-Sun Mountain and down the St. Mary's valley.

Down by the visitor's center there were some melted out places that had the typical combination of Glacier Lily, Western Pasqueflower, and little Spring Beauties:

So with all this snow up high, do you think I would be able to find any flowers?  Of course!  But they were all little newbies just getting started.  For example:

This is teeny-tiny as you can tell from my red bandana; it was growing in a crack in the very rock where I was sitting.   Meanwhile, Warren headed up to the ridge:

The climb is steep enough that he kick-steps up the snow;
he is holding on to an ice-ax, and his skis are strapped on his pack.

Back to flowers.  I found moss campion buds, saxifrage buds and little soft willow buds emerging:

Moss Campion

Western Saxifrage bud

some type of willow

White Dryas bud

White Dryas flower

Then I found little clusters of Northern Anemone, related to Pasqueflower, but much smaller.

if these look like Dryas, notice the difference in the foliage.

Whoa! Here comes Warren zipping down the hill with no warning!  Then he headed off towards Mt. Reynolds for one more run.

Just a few more little alpine beauties to go... the tiny alpine version of King's Crown or Rose Root; compare this with the King's Crown we saw on Wheeler Peak!

Then nature gave me a textbook flower identification lesson.  Side by side were Yellow Mountain Heath and White Mountain Heather.  I could never be sure about the difference until today.

White Mountain Heather

Yellow Mountain Heath

There were lots of familiar flowers growing along the road, but I'll save those for when I see them on the trail.  We did stop at one waterfall, where there were lots of shooting stars growing.

Bitterroot Welcome

We are back home in Kalispell now.  Would you believe that at the first place we stopped in Montana along I-15, we found Bitterroot at the rest area?!!!  Amazing!  What a welcome home!  This is south of Butte, near Divide.

See how there is no foliage; the flower stem comes right out of the ground.

Rest-area near Divide; see if you can make out a tiny bit of pink in the lower foreground.

Here they are!

Nothing like seeing our state flower on our first stop back in Montana!

The road to Logan Pass is open in the Park, so we'll be heading up there to see what's blooming up there.  Good to be back home!

Top of New Mexico

We have said Adios to Cloudcroft, and are now on our way back to Montana.  We decided to take a little side trip to Taos and hike up to Wheeler Peak, the highest point in New Mexico.  We did it!  13,280 ft!  Of course we started at around 10,000 ft at the Taos Ski Valley, but it was still a big accomplishment for me!

On top of Wheeler Peak

Looking at Wheeler Peak from near Taos; it is the light-colored peak in the center.

On our way there we saw this smoke plume above Santa Fe;
there is a fire in the Pecos Wilderness.

Back to flowers; we saw lots of flowers--I have about 50 in my list and many are the same ones we would see anywhere in the Rocky Mountains, I think.  I'll just take time to post the ones that were a little more unique to a hike in New Mexico.

This was in profusion along a creek close to the ski area; I believe it is mainly watercress.

beautiful little Forget-Me-Nots up on top.

some Forget-Me-Nots without the blue

Colorado Columbine worked its way down into New Mexico!

We found these beauties all over a boulder field, hiding the the nooks and crannies.

We saw a  lot of this and I'm thinking it is a kind of draba or rockcress;
I'm sure my research assistant will start digging for me.

Red Clover?

something in the sunflower family

White Phlox with a tint of lavender; it smelled like lilacs blooming.

clumps of this spilled down the scree slope

Rose root; King's Crown; in some places it was a foot tall!

close up of Roseroot

a variety of Gooseberry

a variety of saxifrage that Lynn and I also saw in Waterton

Since we are on the road and internet access is limited, that's all I can share today.  Til we meet again.

Carrizozo Malpais

Between the towns of Socorro and Carrizozo, New Mexico, there is an ancient lava flow, referred to as the Malpais or literally, Bad-Land.  Imagine the early explorers coming up from Mexico and wondering how they would get across this:

We had to get Colter and Alli to the airport really early on Friday morning, so we got an early start for going back south to Cloudcroft.  We stopped at the Malpai State Park; since it was 8 a.m. and still cool, we decided to walk the trail through it.  Even in this desolate landscape there are plants that manage to eek out an existence.  Here are some of the things we saw.

By the way, we had a very nice sandal-friendly trail through  it!

Soaptree Yucca

The spines of Yucca are smooth except for this curling fiber, but the pointed tips are like daggers.

This one was in bud, with the pods not quite developed.

Another desert plant that sort of looks like yucca is Sotol.  The edges of the spines are toothed and it has a different kind of flower spike.  There were a lot of Sotol plants for us to see the difference.  It is also called Desert Spoon.

last year's flower stalk, Sotol

Yucca and Sotol are both in the Lily family.  So it wasn't a surprise to see that there is a desert version of Beargrass.  We saw several "grass" clumps and last year's flower stalk, but none in bloom now.

Beargrass; Nolina texana

Of course there were lots of cactus varieties:

Prickly Pear; the blooms were done and the "pears" were emerging.

I thought this one was interesting with the red spines.

Cholla

Cholla

Hedgehog cactus

 There were lots of shrubs that are drought resistant.  Hopefully I don't mis-name them.

Mesquite

Algeria; the leaves are shaped like tiny holly.

Mormon Tea, Ephedra

Four-winged Saltbush

couldn't find a match to identify this one, but it had a beautiful green color

Juniper tree; the desert's bonzai

 Not surprisingly we didn't see many flowers, but there were a few.

This is either Paperdaisy (Psilostrophe cooperi) or Wild Zinnia (Zinnia grandiflora).

Thread-leaf Groundsel

I think this is some type of Gromwell.

 Along the road between Carrizozo and Tularosa we saw these Indian Blanket Flower.

Gaillardia pulchella