Rain-washed View - Flathead Lake, Montana

Enjoying morning coffee and the rustic hospitality of the US Park Service. (Let’s hear it for car camping! Woot woot!) Yesterday brought much-needed rain to the region so, thankfully, the only smoke I smell today is via my cozy campfire.

Beargrass Close - Rogers Pass, Montana

"...The reason we love it so much is that it takes us back to winter, our bikes somehow feel like we’re riding lightest and deepest snow, only at 75 degrees and in short sleeves. Riding through fields exploding in the white, softball size blooms of the bear grass, many at perfect handlebar height, can be just as much fun as skiing the best run of the winter...." 
 -Phil Grove, from Ben's Beargrass, 21 May 2018 essay at Eskapee 

July Beargrass On The Continental Divide - Rogers Pass, Montana

Other-worldly beargrass, blooming late in the season, beckons to come further up the mountain path at the top of the Continental Divide at Rogers Pass (elevation 5610 ft)
(Alas, we did not heed the call, partly because we are more akin now to City Mouse and are dreadfully afraid of bears...)

 

Daisies At The Jack Saloon - Lolo, Montana

"Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them.  In fact, I'd try to have nothing else...If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds 

and I would pick more daisies." - Nadine Stair (allegedly)

(While we didn't pick any daisies yesterday, we certainly enjoyed their bright-eyed abundance on the gorgeous grounds of The Jack Saloon, up Highway 12 from Lolo, Montana.)

Daisy Chatter - Missoula, Montana

"...Said the other, little daisy, 

"I am very well content

To live simply in the meadow 

where the sun and rain are sent..."

- from Two Little Daisies by Gertrude Tooley Buckingham (1880-1964?)

Fair To Middlin' - Missoula, Montana

"I've been to the highest of highs and lowest of lows, so one day I'm going to find my middle ground and be happy." - Cheryl Cole 

Bright Spot - Missoula, Montana

Despite the persistent heat, Mount Sentinel boasts vibrant varieties of blooming wildflowers, including this bright blanketflower.
In the interests of preserving natural flora, aforementioned blanketflower included, the M trail is rife with signs reminding travelers to keep to the trail. Bear in mind that the main path to the giant M consists entirely of ELEVEN huff-puff inducing switchbacks, divided amongst 620 vertical feet, with only steep and wire fencing in between. I have to wonder if these admonishments exist thanks to some crazed coed who hopped the fencing only to slide, screaming like a banshee, 600+ feet to the trailhead. THAT would definitely be a diversionary trail sighting! But bad for any wildflowers en route. So let's hope the signs are merely a theory-based preventative.

Foggy Winter Weeds - Missoula, Montana

“What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and wildness?

Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet;

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”- Gerard Manley Hopkins: 1881  'Inversnaid'

Un-Seeded - Missoula, Montana

Miniature treasures captured on the downhill portion of yesterday's hike to the top of University Peak.
(For the record, we didn't start from the old road that comes up the back of the mountain - since the road's gate is often locked, we started from the bottom, where we parked behind the Press Box restaurant.)

Blooming Wild, Polson, Montana

As the saying goes, "Bloom where you're planted" - whether or not anyone ever sees you.

Sunny Disposition, Missoula, Montana

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I have a wildly sunny disposition. I love to laugh." 
- Daniel Gilbert, Social Psychologist, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University (b.1957)

Yah gotta love "wildly sunny" - Click on the text links in this post for more from Daniel Gilbert.

Fierce and Furry, Missoula, Montana

 



Summer hollyhocks convert to graceful floral dolls, but these fierce and furry spring wildflowers would inspire something more along lines of “Where the Wild Things Are”. 
Especially since they are wildflowers…ferociously guarding the Missoula skyline.