Day Hike - Umtanum Ridge

Heard the Seattle adage, “if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes?”  We had sun, wind, clouds, snow all on the same hike.  Our goal was to identify flower species and locate hedgehog cacti (see photo).  No sheep today.  Species seen included: some sort of hawk, western meadowlark, yellow rumped warbler, horned lizard, stiff sagebrush, bluebell, cryptantha, pucoon, fiddle-neck, sage buttercup, larkspur, hedgehog cactus, golden currant, clarkia, Thompson’s paintbrush, brodiaea, yellow bell, camas, death camas, dagger-pod, nine-leaves desert parsley, salt and pepper, chocolate lomatium, lupine, shooting star, bitterbrush, service berry, prairie star, arrow leaf balsamroot, hookers balsamroot, yarrow, sagebrush violet, water leaf.  Excellent group.  Identifying these species was a group effort and I’m thankful to have had experienced naturalists and enthusiastic newer naturalists on this trip.  Everyone learned something today which in my book is a success.