With this field trip recap, you are mostly going to get a photo dump. I did get a few photos of specific plants we looked at, but a lot of them were just dried out flowers and seeds we collected. Surprisingly (to me) we found a handful of flowers still in bloom! Lupine, groundsel, Indian Paintbrush, linnanthus, lots of purple Fleabane, some buckwheat, and even one lonely patch of coyote mint. We also saw more lichen, fir trees, a limber pine, cow parsnip, stone crop, timothy (a grass, not a person), and needle and thread (also a grass). As far as collected seeds go, we got Western Coneflower, Elephant’s Head (yay!), Fireweed (yay!), Coyote Mint, Nettleleaf Horsemint, Penstemon (either Rocky Mountain or Wasatch), and about 7 little Sweet Root seeds. Some of these seeds are going to go into my garden, but the rest will be in the award packets for those in the class who earn the Naturalist award! (If you need a reminder of what that is, HERE is your link!)
This hike was a little difficult, but nothing we couldn’t handle. All the lakes were stunning, as usual, except for Dog Lake which is more like a glorified puddle, as usual. (It’s definitely still worth seeing! In the summer you can find monskhood there!) The snow was an added bonus; the mud was an added… experience. Thank you, thank you to everyone who came. This was definitely our most strenuous field trip so far, but I’m still thinking about those mountains and lakes and trees! What a great day!
This and the next two are Lake Catherine
And some more photos to enjoy…
