The Wasatch Wildflower Festival at Albion Meadow has become a favorite of mine over the last few years.
It spans 3 days and four different ski resorts. Saturday is Albion Meadow at Alta and according to the festival guides, has the most and showy flowers of all the resorts.Every year the display is a little different depending on what the weather conditions have been. It was a very warm spring and so many of the flowers I've seen in the past had already 'lost their bloom'. But this was made up in abundance by the surprises I received along the way.
(And to my friends who introduced the festival to me, and couldn't attend this year, you were missed. :) )
The intermediate hike claimed to be 1 1/2 hours. (It was 3!) It was uphill and then down. (No cushy van to the top of the trail-head this year!) It's a trail I've taken 'down' the mountain before; it's so amazing how different something looks depending on the way one is facing on the path.
When we finally descended the trail, the guide took us on a side path I'd never noticed before. I saw three things I've never seen at the festival before. Seeing pink Yarrow and white Indian Paintbrush for the first time made it well worth the extra 45 minutes. That's 2. Continue on to find the third. Enjoy!
OH! You may have noticed I have a music box again. Yippee! If you want to hear it, just click play. To see larger versions of the photos just click on them also.
Pearly Everlasting
Monkey Flower
Monk's Hood
This beautiful little flower was plentiful this year. When we got back to the festival I indulged in the offered sidewalk chalk and drew my own rendition on the pavement. :)
Pink Yarrow
This was on the side trip. Click to see it up close.
Twinberry Honeysuckle
Sadly, not the least bit fragrant. But it is intriguing.
Indian Paintbrush
This flower comes in many shades in the meadow, red, hot pink, pale pink, coral and russet. But even the guide was surprised to find...
...White!!!
Here is the third thing I had never seen on this trail before... a bright orange toadstool!!!
This appeared to be a loner and not a ring of them
or I never would have gotten so close for fear of Faeries. :)
Oh Deer!
This little lady posed sweetly for me.
I love how the morning sun is kissing her ears.
Lovely, Laura. I remember walking through Alta a couple years ago. I recently uploaded some of those photos to my own blog. I thought of you...and missed you.
ReplyDeleteMagic - total magic. How do you actually move yourself to do something like this? Take the time to hike - release control of your life and connections that long? I'm imagining it - and all I feel is too much sun on my head. HOW SAD IS THAT? A deer - that close? I used to spend so many hours in the mountains when I was young, then the metaphorical mountains of parenthood and livelihood and all those things I had never anticipated being such hard climbs just sort of happened around me. Hard to see the real mountains after that -
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