Blue Mountain's Backside

Blue Mountain Recreation Area, Lolo National Forest, Montana

After heavy rains yesterday evening the day started with low clouds that soon began to clear. With Blue Mountain only 10 minuets from the front door, it seemed like the place to go today. As soon as I got to the trailhead I knew it was going to be a great hike, as a young whitetail deer just starting his antlers for the year greeted me. Nice of him to stand in front of the burned tree as well.

I quickly realized that lots of plants were blooming, as I moved up the mountain the colors changed, at first it was white blooms…and they looked great with the blue sky and all the green. Even saw some white wild strawberry blooms as well but didn't take photos of them. I did remember where they were so I can go back and pick some of the fruit!

A few patches of purple started showing in the burned areas, that soon gave way to lots of purple…

 then red...

 then the red and purple were mixed together.

Very few yellow flowers, but I did find some...

Finally I made my way back down the mountain and by the time I got back to my truck, my feet were soaked. The grasses and flowering plans were still wet from yesterdays rain. Had a snack looking at the meadow at the trailhead, then it was time to go back to the house. Clouds were beginning to take on the look of a repeat performance of yesterdays storm and I didn't want to be in the middle of it.

Kootenai Creek Valley

Selway-Bitteroot Wilderness, Montana

A nice warm spring day after several days of afternoon storms so off to the mountains I went. The sound of the creek as I approached the valley let me know it was flowing a lot faster than normal. Soon I saw what is normally a crystal clear ribbon of water along the valley floor was instead rushing and churning to get to the Bitterroot River.

As I explored along the river and up the sides of the valley I found that I was looking at all the flowers in bloom. Trying new settings on my camera I got some of them with good photos, and some of the photos were not very good at all! These are a small sample of all the beautiful flowers. I wish some of the mass of purple ones had turned out, they were among the prettiest groups of flowers I saw all day.

 I have not been able to find this purple flower in my identification book. I loved the delicate bloom, and the great design on the leaves. I will have to keep looking because I really want to know what it is.

As I was finding a good Trillium to take a picture of, I stumbled on some black bear footprints in the mud almost 5 miles up the valley. I have never seen any bear prints in this valley before. Usually all I find are wolf prints.

This Indian Paintbrush was such a unique color, it caught my attention. Most of them were a very deep red, but a small area had these orange ones.

I like this flower as it goes to seed. Looks like it has a hair style fit for a punk rocker.