View from the Office

I spent the past week in northern Wyoming at the Northwest College Field Station.  The wildflowers were in bloom—geranium and delphinium, and elephant head and death camas.  There was also a daily thunderstorm which helped keep the weather cool:  Nighttime lows were in the low 40s.  It was definitely my kind of place.

Elephant Head

VSO is a good amateur botanist.  When she is with me in the field, we often spend time on wildflower identification.  We were out yesterday, and I was eager to show her this one (below).  From a distance, it seems to be a purple spire but, if you look closely, each tiny flower-let has a round head and long trunk:  The head of an elephant.  (The picture also shows the white tuft of the American bistort, but we'll save that for another day.)

Trapped

We decided to go up Bowery Creek for a short hike.  After we passed Henderson Hill, it started to rain.  After that it poured.  We drove all the way to Yankee and sat there in the downpour for a while, but figured we'd be better off going up the highway.  So, we drove down and turned towards Brian Head.  At Mile 11, we found that the creek was flowing across the road (above).  So, we turned around again, and headed towards home.  Before we got to town, however, the creek was a river.  And the river was blocking the highway (below).  Trapped!

MDC

 

I was out with VSO late last evening at the Breaks.  We came across this little beauty (above), but couldn't quite remember if we'd identified it before.  When we got home we found it in the book.  A mountain death camas (Zigadenus elegans), so named because it is highly poisonous.  Eating just two of the root bulbs—how do we know this?—can be fatal.  At any rate, we kept our hands in our pockets and survived the encounter.  And, hey, look, clouds (below).  We've not had a wetting rain in nearly 70 days, so to have a few moist clouds was a big change.  It even briefly tried to drizzle.