Lynn's friend Mary is visiting from Seattle, and my friend from Cut Bank, Gail, is here as well. The four of us met at Logan Pass yesterday morning to hike along the Highline Trail and enjoy the flowers. This part of the Park is also known as "the Garden Wall." The trail traverses a steep slope from Logan Pass, north to Granite Park Chalet, just below a knife ridge of rock that separates the west side from the drainage to Many Glacier on the east. The first part of the trail actually parallels the Going-To-The-Sun Highway below.
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| Beargrass and cliffs above the trail |
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| Looking back at Logan Pass; Mt. Reynolds on the left, Clements on the right. |
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| Not a great photo, but it shows the roadway going to Logan Pass; the trail is faintly above it. |
The early morning shade gave us some beautiful lighting for our first flower shots:
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| Yellow Columbine and Rock Penstemon |
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| Phacelia and Rock Penstemon |
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| Lewis Monkeyflower |
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| Twisted Stalk; the flowers will become dangling orange berries. |
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| Explorer's Gentian |
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| Yellow Columbine, Death Camas and Purple Chive |
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| Golden Aster beginning to open |
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| Cut-Leaf Anemones |
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| Snowflake Mitrewort; Mitella trifida |
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| Pink Spirea |
Then the sun came over the east ridge and we had a full-sun kind of day!
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| Back-lit Beargrass stalks |
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| Most of the Beargrass was about spent up here. |
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| Lynn and Mary, "up a creek!" |
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| Galardia |
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| Tofieldia |
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| Hiking buddies, Lynn and Gail |
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A variety of floral color covered the hillside;
we are headed to the green saddle which is below Haystack Butte on the left. |
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| Mature Beargrass with Haystack Butte. |
Then we met the goats. This one OWNED the trail! He reluctantly stepped off so we could get by, but jumped right back up on the trail afterwards. The goats' winter fleece is gradually coming off, so they looked rather haggard.
Then when we were taking a break above the trail on some rocks, here came a different Mama Goat...
...and then Baby Goat...
...and off down the trail they went!
We saw them again later, eating their lunch on the green hillside.
When we got up to the saddle below Haystack, we had lunch and found these beauties:
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| Alpine Speedwell |
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| Rosy Paintbrush, with a peek of Heaven's Peak |
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| I hope you can see all the variety of pink color in this rose-garden of Paintbrush! |
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| Crazy sedge-grass |
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| Another variety of Mitrewort; Mitella pentandra |
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| Girlfriends on the trail: Anna, Lynn and Gail |
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| With our new friend Mary. |
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| More gardens in the sunshine |
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| Mt. Oberlin for a back-drop wasn't too bad. |
As we were hiking back to Logan Pass, we found Mama and Baby resting in the shade.
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| What a cute kid! |
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| Mama staying protective as we passed by under them. |
Then we came around a cliffy corner and met the Logan Pass Welcoming Committee of One!
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Where his horns should be look like old wounds,
so he must have lost a goat-fight somewhere along in his life. |
I zoomed in on this goat to take photos, but this is where he was in relation to the trail:
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