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For several years, we have done a bio-blitz into Yellowstone. Wake up at home – get out the door early – in the park by 9am – 10 hours of walking and driving to find all the animals we can see – dinner in Gardiner – home to our own beds by 10 or 11pm.…

I noticed the sun rose over the eastern mountains at just about about 6am today. So, I made a second cup of coffee and got out the door with the Lab. We headed for the Old Rifle Range Trailhead. I wanted to find a flower that my BWF (Best Wildflowering Friend) told me about somewhere…

June 21, 2023 was a good day. Just pre-dawn, I found myself on the roof taking a picture of the sky in the NE. The way the orange fades to blue is simply breathtaking when the sky is clear, and the sun has not yet come up over the Big Belts. I was immersed in…

Since May 1, I have logged just over 210 miles of hiking – primarily across Mount Helena. That’s just a bit over 4.75 miles every day. My tracker also suggests that I have climbed a touch over 54,000 feet of elevation in that time- about 10 miles of vertical. I believe that you never walk…

I had a very nice excursion today. I took a day trip up into the Sun River country. I’ve always taken a right turn in August and headed towards Fairfield or Choteau, but I’ve always been curious about the sign suggesting that there was a reservoir ‘out there’ if I went straight at the intersection.…

Low key day, today. About 8 miles of walking, but only 4 of it was hiking. I found a Yucca in the valley that I want to keep an eye on- I’ve never seen one bloom. Probably sometime in late June or early July is my guess. I also found the Larkspur shown above. At…

May has come to a close. It’s been an amazing Wildflower Month. The Lab and I have walked on Mt Helena (or the other South Hills trails) a minimum of three times every day since May 1- literally morning’ noon, and night, well evening. After six months of snow on the ground and the winter…

May has been amazing. Particularly from a wildflower perspective. I have ID’ed over 100 species of flowering plants in the last 30 days. I have also hiked on Mt Helena every day so far this month. My hiking total (as of May 30) is 147.5 miles. I am likely to go over 150 miles tomorrow…

Today was epic. Well over 50 flowers ID’d; over 9 miles of walking, with about 6.5 hiking; two new birds, a Snowshoe Hare, a Milbert’s Tortoiseshell, and litterally dozens of fields and hillsides covered in flowers. Plus, the Lab found a couple of big snow drifts and went slighty berserk rolling and snorting and sliding.…

In addition to Mother’s Day, today was a good friend’s birthday. A dozen folks joined us on a wildflower walk across the lower east side of Mt. Helena. we ended the walk with a fantastic Huckleberry cake. I feel like this needs to be an annual event. Finding Wart-berry Fairybells on the sunny side of…