About a week after I went up the Mammaries with Doreen, I climbed up there again. This time the weather was gorgeous.
Quite a lot of snow had melted, but I still needed to slog through quite a bit. Long Meadow was a constellation of white flowers. It was like walking through the milky way. These photos do not do justice to the masses of mountain marsh marigolds and globe flowers.
Here are the two species growing together. The mountain marsh marigold is the larger one.
In places there were bunches of mountain meadow buttercup
At the top of the treeline there was the usual view of The Mammaries.
The tundra ponds below it were starting to open.
A week ago, Doreen and I climbed the north nipple, which is on the right in the photo above. This time I went up the other one.
Mountain avens were abundant.
And jacob’s ladder were now making a good show
The alpine heather, a different species than that which grows at lower elevations, was starting to come out.
Horned larks were giving their thin, high whistle.
Almost at the top, I ran into one of my favourites. The alpine forgetmenot.
Here is a closeup of this wonderful flower.
Right at the top of the peak was a wonderful clump of what used to be called Potentilla villosa but now isn’t – as it grows only at high, exposed elevations, I am going to call it alpine cinquefoil and to heck with the experts.
Its location was stunning!