Monday, August 22, 2016

Montana Flowers & Plants

I enjoyed photographing the prairie plants around Canyon Ferry Lake. At first glance all you could see was brown grass with the occasional sagebrush and juniper. But looking closer, the sagebrush was flowering:

flowering sagebrush

and wildflowers like these blazing stars were hidden in the grass:

Prairie blazing star

Prairie blazing star

I'm not sure what these next plants are, they were about four feet high with "furry" leaves and grew closer to water, not on the dry prairie.

flowers

You had to watch where you put your feet since there was a lot of cactus in some places. Mostly prickly pear like these

Prickly pear cactus

It was past flowering, but there were some fruits left.

Prickly pear cactus

These next cacti weren't as common and were often half buried making them harder to spot. I'm guessing some kind of Escobaria or pincushion cactus, maybe spiny star.

cactus

Lately I've been trying to find some blue gamma grass to photograph. These were the only ones I spotted.

Blue gamma grass

The heads curl up attractively after the seeds are gone:

Blue gamma grass

After camping we spent the night at the historic Sacajawea Hotel in Three Forks to get cleaned up. The next day we went for a short hike at the nearby Missouri Headwaters State park.

backlit flower

Anyone know what these next flowers are?

flower

flower

We also went for a hike (actually more of a bushwhack) in the Lewis and Clark National forest where the Indian Paintbrush and other wildflowers were blooming.

Indian Paintbrush

flower

On our way home we spent a night in in Great Falls and went for a walk in Gibson Park where there were lots of flowers.

Purple coneflower

even some blue globe thistles:

Blue globe thistle

For more of these photos, see all 32 as a slideshow or overview

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