A surfeit of blue: the Bighorns in late June.....

Aquilegia jonesii on Duncum mountain

 For rock gardeners, the bighorns summon images of Jones' inimitable columbine. Well..here it is! In all it's glory. We hit the columbine "spot on" as they say, and I suspect many dozens of pictures were taken yesterday (June 29),,,

Here was the champion Jonesii!

 What's most amazing is that the biggest and happiest plants are along the road? What did they do before jeep roads?

Aquilegia jonesii

The camera keeps snapping--almost beyond control!

Aquilegia jonesii

Typical tufts are smaller but still very winsome!

Delphinium nuttallii

Far commoner than the columbines, larkspur make pools of cobalt color from forest zone up to the tundra.

Claytronia lanceolata

I was surprised this year to see how ubiquitous spring beauties were at almost every elevation--including tundra.

Douglasia (Androsace) montana, Draba oligosperma and Eritrichium aretioides

I particularly enjoy seeing the bright color of alpine plants when they are in combinations like these...

Douglasia (Androsace) montana, Draba oligosperma and Eritrichium aretioides

Or in this even more intimate combo.

Eritrichium aretioides

I thought we had Eritrichium in abundance in Colorado: on Duncum and Sheep mountain it's practically a groundcover!

MORE

Towards the summit of Duncum

The lay of the land is fascinating--so gentle and yet rugged all at once. Dolomite is a fascinating rock. The hoodoos of Duncum mountain are in the distance.

Douglasia montana

Apparently "Douglasia" is just a subset of Androsace--which makes sense if you look at them. But we're diehards and it will take a while to ease into the new generic term...They're ubiquitous hereabouts.

More views--gray from a distance, full of flowers close up.

A ledge with alplily

I love the lichen encrusted limestone! Lloydia serotina isn't as common hereabouts as in Colorado, I think. But fun to find nonetheless.

Among the hoodoos

Mary Jenson, president of our chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society, is exploring among the hoodoos. The picture doesn't show the hurricane force winds that made the hiking "interesting"...

Astragalus kentrophyta ssp. implexus

In Colorado this usually occurs in more Montane elevations. This was popular with the group--surely the tiniest astragalus.

Moose!

We spotted five moose on the trip, quite a few elk. One of our party saw a Grizzly bear, and of course lots of mule deer--a regular "Wild World" episode!

The young bucks seemed almost as interested in us as we in them...

Shooting star meadow

My camera can't pick up the bright rose specks that positively fill the meadow: like Douglasia with Androsace, Dodecatheon is now combined in Primula: and this tiny "watsonii" isn't even recognized by most botanists. Oh well...

Saxifraga rhoboidea

I don't remember ever seeing our snowball saxifrage making such extensive meadow appearances in Colorado either!

More views of shooting stars en masse...

I never get tired of shooting stars (Primula pulchella just doesn't cut it!)

Allan Taylor sprawled out photographing

What a treat to travel with Allan--my brother-in-law and first gardening mentor! He hadn't ever been on this mountain, so it was fun to watch him revel in it!

Closeup of the Dodies (affectionate nickname for Dodecatheon that was)

A still unidentified umbel (Lomatium) that was here and there in the meadows.

I've come to love Apiaceae--which is a good thing. We have almost too many in the West...not as bad as Central Asia however.

And MORE dodies...

Growing with the Dodecatheon was the tiniest Collomia barely a few millimeters tall.

Trollius albiflorus

Albiflorus is a bit of an overstatement: these are a wonderful lemonade yellow color.

Pasqueflowers on Medicine Wheel mountain

We've now driven a few miles to Medicine Wheel mountain--and one of the first things to greet us was a meadow filled with Pulsatilla patens.

John Brink and Caryl Shilelds threading the snowfields

And here it's Sandy Snyder...another old and dear friend.

It's always fun to find witch's brooms--here in Engelmann spruce

Our destination, still a mile away--Medicine wheel mountain in the distance..

Draba oligosperma everywhere still.

And lots of Eritrichium, here combined with Phlox pulvinata in a pale form.

Astragalus kentrophyta again, even more common on this mountain.

I can't resist Douglasia montana

The real goal of the trip--Kelseya uniflora!

There was only one plant blooming still, and it was in a precarious spot--but zooming in on it let's us get a view of the winsome flowers.

Even the kelseyas that had finished flowering were gorgeous to view!

swales full of Ranunculus pedatifidus

Ranunculus pedatifidus

A gorgeous plant up close as well...

Medicine Wheel

The fence surrounding the wheel is festooned with colorful amulets.

Medicine Wheel

Always inspiring to come to this ancient destination of the native peoples of our region.

Potentilla?

Maybe a geum instead--but very cute tucked in the rock...

Clematis columbiana v. tenuiloba

Most of the larger colonies were only in bud, but we did find a few tufts of this sublime groundcovering clematis starting to bloom--a fitting bluish end to a shimmering day in one of America's most glorious flower fields--which was better than ever for us this summer.