Granite Park and Swiftcurrent Pass

From Logan Pass you can hike along the "Garden Wall" over to the Chalet, or up from the Loop, the major switchback on the Sun Road.  From there it's another .9 mile to Swiftcurrent Pass and views down into the Many Glacier area.  Here are some views from Granite Park (besides Heavens):

View south toward Logan Pass

View northwest toward the North Fork mountains.

As we came up through the hillside from the Loop, we saw a lot of Wild Hollyhock beginning to show-off.  It was dry for this time in the summer, so many of the plants we expected to see were done, and other plants were coming earlier than usual.  It was like we were either too early or too late, except about right for Hollyhock.

False Solomon's Seal with berries replacing the flowers.

Morning back-lit Paintbrush

Yellow Monkeyflower along a little seep

Mariposa Lily

Our view east toward Swiftcurrent Peak; there is a fire-look-out up there that you can see from here.

The hike to the fire-lookout was two and a half miles, while it was less than a mile to the pass--so we opted for that.  Besides, that's where the alpine flowers would be.  We went from the west side of the park to the east, just past the Continental Divide.  It was amazing to see the east side after only 5 miles!

The Swiftcurrent Valley: Mount Henkel on the left, Lake Sherburne in the distance,
and the chain of lakes starting with the closest is Bullhead, Red Rock (2), and Fishercap.

Me: it was cold and windy on top

Flower-nerd buddies!

After we visited the pass and saw the views, it was back to wildflowers.

Alpine Sandwort

Spotted Saxifrage

Masses of Pink Heather by a little pond.

Wierd grass-seed, probably a sedgegrass

One green Paintbrush growing up through the Heather

Tiny blue Alpine Speedwell 

Yellow Mountain Heath

Buttercups along the little creek.

Wild Chive still in bud

We didn't have time or the energy to do part of the Highline trail, so we headed back down the way we came.  Made an interesting observation about the coloring in beargrass.  Most of the time the flower-heads look like this:

Or this, creamy white:

Then we saw these with burgundy:

Not sure why it was this way, but we've also noticed that some Glacier Lilies have white anthers and some get really maroon without any apparent reason.  I'll have to ask a real botanist one of these days.

We also found an orchid called Ladies' Tresses or Spiranthes romanzoffiana.  It usually blooms in August, so it is a product of our warm, dry summer.  We don't get to see many of these.

From an overhead view, you can see how the flowers grow in rows that almost spiral.

A lady at church yesterday said to me, "You must not be getting out for hiking this summer. You aren't on crutches or anything!"  I quickly informed her of the contrary, but realized I've almost reached an accident-free milestone; it's almost been 2 years since I broke my ankle.  I'm very grateful for the Lord granting me safety so far!