It seems as though the week has been consumed with bitterroot sightings.
Oh, how I love this Montana state flower!
On Wednesday we found a bitterroot blooming on a disturbed piece of ground on the Pioneer Ridge loop in the Little Belts.
On Thursday, I finally took that 50-mile drive from Utica to Spring Creek in the Little Belts along the South Fork of the Judith and found an enormous patch on the Russian Flat.
On Friday I had an unusual trip to Rogers Pass and the Continental Divide Trail and found the flower along the ridgeline heading toward the Anaconda Hills.
Our Sunday hike was at Two Medicine Upper Lake to view mainly beargrass. The park was not overly crowded and we got rained on.
Folks have been reporting an outstanding bitterroot bloom in other spots, including Yaeger Flats on the South Fork of the Teton near Ear Mountain.
My hiking buddy, Gordon Whirry, said he didn't think there was much bitterroot in the Little Belts until we happened upon a patch just off trail on Pioneer Ridge. I had seen a single bitterroot on the ridge last year and thought he might be right. Guess not.
The weather has been stinking hot, so I decided to spend my day Thursday driving that South Fork Judith road. Katie was with friends looking for bitterroot on the CDT's Anaconda Hills. I was thinking about her when just south of the Russian Flat I was surprised by a Pepto Bismal pink color in the ground cover, stopped the car, and found one of the largest patches of bitterroot I have ever seen. I took a side trip over terrible road from Sapphire Village to the Morris-Yogo Peak trailheads and found that Yogo Creek had been overrun by spring runoff and was too difficult for me to cross, so I gave up on it.
When Katie got back from her hike she described her bitterroot sightings and mentioned that she had accidentally left her hiking poles at one of the spots on the CDT.
So, on Friday I hoofed it up there to retrieve the poles and found numerous spots where the flower was growing, although I was so early in the day they hadn't fully opened to the sun yet.
South Fork Judith drive
The highlights of this drive are many: the funky town of Utica with its fake old Western storefronts and Oxen Yoke Inn with its giant burgers and fries; the settlement of Sapphire Village, with its Blue Nugget Bar commemorating the famed Yogo Sapphire mined nearby and the gateway trailheads to the Middle Fork of the Judith Wilderness Study Area --- Morris-Yogo Peak, Rickerts Gulch: the limestone walls along the road leading to Hay Canyon: the towering Russell Point rock; the glorious valley housing the Trask Ranch, now home to high end summer mansions of the rich; Russian Flat, a vast multi-miles long, flat grassland that houses a airplane landing strip and Forest Service campground; the Spring Creek Canyon of towering limestone walls.
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