Springtime in the High Uintas

When we left the Salt Lake Valley three weeks ago the temperatures were getting up to the hundreds, but here at Hinckley Scout Ranch it was spring-time.  While the lilacs in the valley had bloomed and died a month earlier, we saw houses in Wyoming with their lilacs in full bloom just last week.

This blue flower is one of the first varieties I noticed; the blossom is shaped a lot like a columbine flower.

Here’s how second spring was for the Norths:  When we went outside at 7:30 for breakfast each morning it was cooooold!  We'd  bundle up in a jacket or two and then shiver through the first meal of the day before we went to work.  Inside the commissary it felt good to warm up in the balmy fifty-degree vegetable refrigerator.  But after an hour or so it was perfect weather (outside—not in the refrigerator!).  And a couple nights ago we did finally get a little rain that tamed the dust around here for a day or two. Yay!

The biggest of these baby daisies is about  3/4-inch in diameter.  The ferns in this natural flower arrangement are probably yarrow.

But the best part of spring in the mountains has been the huge variety of flowers that are blooming right now, and have been since we got here.  Blues, purples, whites, pinks, yellows and reds . . .  At first I wanted to take pictures of every different flower I saw, but there are way too many—I feel like there’s a new one every day.  Even the dandelions looked pretty here when they were in full bloom!

The girls and I have been calling these flowers sweet-peas because of the curling, twining tendrils the plant has and because, in our minds, the flowers look like pea flowers.  Do they? 

We first saw these fuschia-colored blossoms right outside our cabin.  They almost look like carnations, but they open up into a globe of little, individual flowers.  The blue flowers in the front right corner grow on tall stems and come in blue, pink, and white.

The leaves of the flowers on the left make me think of Oregon Grape.

I've seen these flowers in purple, pink and white.



The Indian Paintbrush started blooming about a week ago.  There's another flower that I thought was also Indian Paintbrush, but on closer inspection I discovered that it was a totally different, more pink than red flower.

 

I thought this flower was really interesting; it has lots of little blossoms with these spiky-looking centers. From a distance it kind of looks like a bottle brush.

 

Even the dandelions—which were blooming in abundance when we arrived—look pretty here.

Last week we saw wild roses blooming. And we’ve also found lots of strawberries blooming all over the place, and some raspberry bushes, too!  The girls have been watering the strawberries that are growing just outside our cabin in hopes that the berries will get bigger than my fingernail. :-)

Yep. The little white flowers are strawberries!

I’m thinking I’d like to landscape my yard just like this mountain, with wildflowers (or just random perrenials) covering the ground and some quakies and pines scattered throughout—maybe even a dead, fallen tree-stump or two just for effect. Especially if it would take care of itself like the mountain does. ;-)

But now summer is coming—yes, even on the mountain top.  All the snow is melted and it is a scorching 80 to 90 degrees; it's hot enough to keep me awake at night if I forget to open the cabin window.  I hear it's super hot in the valley—we're expecting 106 when we go home Saturday.  Bleh. So I do love the weather here and I love the plants. If you look to nature and not the dirty old roads, it is quite lovely. Quite lovely.