I am used to seeing a wide variety of wildflowers in the northern Rockies in Montana, and I have found a similarly wide variety and abundance of such natural beauty in the Bear River mountains in far northern Utah and southern Idaho as well. Many of the meadows are completely filled with flowers, like the one above, the only question is what type and color will they be.
I don’t think I’d ever seen the beautiful variety pictured below, and it is so far the only one of its type I’ve seen in my two weeks camping, hiking, biking and exploring in the forests and meadows of these mountains along Beaver Creek in the area around the Utah-Idaho border:
I’ve so far counted five different types of yellow flowers, including the ones seen in the top photo...
Two different type of blue ones:
Three purple varieties:
Three pink varieties...
Including these wild roses:
Two varieties of red wildflowers, including the one rare one already pictured above.
And five varieties of white wildflowers!
Six, if you include the plentiful flowering wild strawberries. Too bad I won’t still be around when they are ready for harvest...
Spring in the Rockies doesn’t just bring tons of wildflowers, it also brings late season snowstorms. After raining all day Tuesday, and again most of the day and all evening Wednesday, the rain turned to snow Wednesday night and had accumulated about an inch by morning. There was still quite a bit left at my campsite even an hour after the sun popped out.
Stuck the longest on my car and the little log bridge that connected the pullout to the campsite in the meadow.
Much more snow fell on the mountainsides above the creek, so much so it didn’t fully melt off until the next afternoon, 36 hours later, despite the warm and sunny skies.
Beaver Mountain, a small local ski area is seen in the photo below:
After the weather cleared up, it was time to pack up and move from the gorgeous meadow I’d been at for the past two weeks.
But due to the fact I was camped on national forest land, and there are more campsites further down the creek on state land, I was able to move to a nearby campsite on the very same creek, probably just a half mile lower down, and will be able to legally camp in the area for a full month! First time I’ve ever run into such a situation, and being that I wasn’t yet ready to drive further north and really liked this particular area, that’s exactly what I decided to do. Best of all, I was able to make the move in several car loads, which meant avoiding the hassle of meticulously packing everything just right so it all fits. Definitely made for an easier time packing up my camp, and the campsite I picked, though not in a giant meadow filled with massive fir trees, was just as cool in its own unique ways, and best of all I didn’t have to cross the creek on a log bridge to get to this campsite!
And here I will stay, continuing to enjoy my time by Beaver Creek in these forests, probably for about 12 days or so, and then it will be time to head back towards Montana at the end of the month.