Flowers In The Wild: Part 2

This is the second part of my post to introduce wildflowers I spotted during my recent trip to six national parks in the west.  You can read part 1 here.  This part is specific for what we saw in Yellowstone National Park.

Geyser Eruption

"Grand Canyon" in Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone Lake

Not only there are abundant wildflowers in Yellowstone, we also had lots of close encounters of wildlife such as Mule Deer, Bison, Moose, Elks, Pronghorn Antelopes and coyotes.

A bird standing on a Pronghorn Antelope

Elk

After a long winter, Bison still have ragged patches of lighter-colored, old hair that have not shed.

Now let me show you more pretty wildflowers in this beautiful park.

Gentianopsis thermalis

Rocky Mountain Fringed Gentian 

Gentianopsis thermalis
Rocky Mountain Fringed Gentian 

Common Dandelion

Linaaria dalmatica
Tall Butter and Eggs

Heracleum lanatum Cow Parsnip

Geranium viscosissimum
Sticky Geranium

Golden Columbine

Campanula rotundifolia
Common Harebell 

I spotted this huge flower at the road side when husband was driving.  Husband offered me to pull over to let me take the picture of it :)

Cirsium scariosum
Elk Thistle

Camassia quamash
COMMON CAMAS 

Don't you love a meadow like this? This meadow is close to Yellowstone lake.

Lupinus lepidus ssp. Caespitosus
Stemless Dwarf Lupine  

All of these were very small part of all pictures I took during our two week trip.  I am glad that I finally get chance to share with you, and I do hope my pictures could trigger some interests if you have not been there before, or stir up some beautiful memories of yours if you have visited there.

Flowers In The Wild: Part 1

I have been back from my two week vacation for about six days now.  We have visited six national parks including Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion and Timpanogos Cave National Monument in Salt Lake City.  The experience were unbelievable!

While we have been enjoying the beautiful scenery, I could not help noticing all the wild flowers in the wild.  They were blooming at different elevation levels, some in the open meadows, some on the rocky mountains, some near the cliffs, some next to the water falls, some next to an active erupting geyser or hot springs, everywhere and anywhere!  They call them as Wild Flowers for a reason!

I have taken lots of flowers’ pictures while hiking, which made the hiking even more interesting.  It is hard to choose just a few in one post, I will divide it into two parts.

I marked those flowers that I was able to find names by comparing the pictures.  For rest of them, I will leave them for my dear readers to tell me...

Bryce Canyon National Park

Sego lily (Bryce Canyon)

(Bryce Canyon)

(Bryce Canyon)

(Bryce Canyon)

Zion National Park

Sacred Datura (Zion National Park)

Globemallow (Zion National Park)

Orange Columbine (Zion National Park)

Orange Columbine (Zion National Park)

Grand Canyon National Park

Three squirrels posed for us in Grand Canyon

Indian Paintbrush (Grand Canyon)

Arizona Thistle (Grand Canyon)

Grand Canyon

Firecracker (Grand Canyon)

Grand Teton National Park

These yellow mules ears were seen everywhere during our five days visit to Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.

Grand Teton

You still can see snow on the mountains in the background in the following two pictures.

Grand Teton

Grand Teton

Grand Teton

Do you see why I said these yellow mules ears were EVERYWHERE?

Grand Teton 

Taken in Grand Teton

Taken in Grand Teton

Skyrocket (Grand Teton)

Bluemat Penstemon (Grand Teton)

As of my own garden, it rained a lot over the two weeks I was away.  You can imagine how wild the weeds have grown, and so were the plants.  The abundant mosquitos were making my weeding progress very slow, and quite frankly I was also feeling a little tired after the vacation.  I need another stay-home vacation to recover from this vacation!  :)

Just realized that this post indeed is my 100th post!  Yay!