In 2017 we went to Mount Rainier in July, because we went to Missouri to see the eclipse in August. There was more snow, and–oh the lilies!
A virtual visit to the mountain-part 4
Tag Archives: wildflowers
A virtual visit to the Mountain-part 1
I am supposed to be at Mount Rainier right now, on our annual trip. But it got canceled. Every year is different, depending on when the snow melts, how warm the summer is and how much rainfall, you can have totally different flowers blooming.
These are from the year 2014. It was a cool, misty week and the lupines were amazing.
Magic Mountain
Better than any ride at Disneyland! The lupines along this portion of the trail were amazing.
These are some photos of the upper (higher elevation) portion of the lakes loop trail starting at Paradise. We had a misty but bright morning the day we hiked the loop.
Twelve months of 2017-July
July was a relatively stress free month. Richard was retired by then and there were no health or administrative crises for grandma.
I spent some time experimenting with photography. In particular I was testing out settings for the eclipse. According to one source I found online you can practice your camera settings for an eclipse by using the full noon time sun for the partial phase using a filter and a full moon for totality. I have to say that those suggestions worked for my camera. You can see the eclipse pictures I took in my Twelve months of 2017-August post. I rather liked some of the pictures from my experimenting phase.
Mid-day sun through maple tree, using filter.
Full moon
Mid-day sun through pine trees, with filter.
Mid-day sun.
As always July seems to cry out for at least one picture from the beach:
We went to Mount Rainier for our annual trip in July since we had our Ecliptic Trip planned for August. As always it was beautiful and the earlier time meant that we got to see the avalanche and glacier lilies that are usually done blooming by August.
Avalanche Lilies
Veronica-aka Speedwell
Bear Grass
Wooly Marmots discussing territory.
Mount Rainier
Cusick’s Speedwell, aka Veronica
More flowers from Mount Rainier. This one is actually a fairly small plant (I put my sunglasses down for some size perspective. I love its purple-blue color.
Jeffrey’s Shooting Star
I have always like these flowers, and been frustrated by trying to capture them in photos. The combination of the small size and how they like to grow in very moist, often dark spots means that they often come out blurry. Especially since I really try to stay on the paved or rock lined paths. I was surprised to learn from Wikipedia that they are in the primrose family.
Collage of the mountain
I’m not much of a collage person, so this week’s challenge was a challenge. After humming and hawing I decided to try something totally new to me> making a digital collage of photographs. Here is a collage I made using Gimp from 5 of the pictures I took at Mount Rainier last week. I obviously have a lot to learn, and need to practice a lot but it was fun to try something new.
Avalanche Lilies
Magenta Indian Paintbrush
It seems like every year I go to Mount Rainier has its own personality. This year the Magenta Indian Paintbrush seemed more vibrant and freshly in bloom than in other years. There is an oranger (apparently that is not a real word) Indian Paintbrush that I saw at lower elevations, the Magenta one seems to be a high altitude variety. I would love to understand the science behind that!
Regardless it is a beautiful flower, at times it can be overwhelmed by the lupines.
Life on the Edge
The edge has been cut by flood waters in this desert wash in Coachella Valley. Last month’s rains have brought out some wildflowers.
XingfuMama 