Mountain Cranberry

(More blog entries from howie)

Mountain Cranberry

A delightful stroll across the Alpine Garden

On Tuesday, a bonus day off for Sue and I, we took a ride up the Auto Road to the Cow Pasture to access the Alpine Garden.  What a delightfull day!  But then again most days above treeline are delightful if you're prepared for what's being forecast and maybe a little something that's not! 

The flowers are still in full bloom with many different ones coming in right now.  Most of the Diapensia, Lapland Rosebay and Azalea are gone bye at this elevation now.  In addition to the Cranberry that I got a shot of, we saw the following either in Cow Pasture or in the Garden:  Labrador Tea, just coming out; Bog Billberry; Moss Campion, Bigelow Sedge; Mountain Sandwort; Diapensia, still holding on in the shadow of some of the cairns; Mountain Avens; Three Toothed Cinquefoil, just budding; Alpine Bluet; Bearberry Willow; Canada Mayflower and Bunchberry.  A pretty stong wind was keeping most of the birds down but we heard White Throated Sparrows, Blackpoll Warblers and Dark Eyed Juncos. 

All in all another great day on the mountain!

Comments

Re: Mountain Cranberry
by Alice Elizabeth on Jun 29th 2007, 7:00 am

Great info, Howie! We were exploring, shooting, and hiking a bit on the same day and saw a few of the newcomers you mentioned! Your blogs have made a huge difference in our enjoyment of the mountain this year! Can you be a bit more specific about which are Alpine Garden residents, and which are Cow Pasture/Ball Crag etc. bloomers, please? We just can not get down to the Alpine Garden itself. Thanks! Looking forward to Sunrise Sunday; our focus will be on Peaceful Reflections, and perhaps a few shots of the flowers...weather permitting!

Re: Mountain Cranberry
by Howie on Jun 29th 2007, 10:11 am

Hi Alice, The only one that I mentioned that I actually saw in the Cow Pasture and not in the Alpine Garden was the Moss Campion - all the others were in the Garden - not that some of them might not also be in Cow Pasture, but we didn't spend much time there.

Re: Mountain Cranberry
by Alice Elizabeth on Jun 30th 2007, 11:16 am

Oops! we missed the Moss Campion in Cow Pasture! Thanks for the alert! Now, how about your official prognosis of tomorrow morning's Sunrise event?

Re: Mountain Cranberry
by Howie on Jun 30th 2007, 2:42 pm

That's going to be a tough call! But I think there will be a good sunrise either at the top of 5 mile or in the Cow Pasture even if the summit is clouded in. Today from the summit we've been in and out of the clouds with excellent visibility whenever the clouds lift - tomorrow is predicted to be much the same.