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| Swift Reservoir looking toward the North Fork Birch Creek valley |
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| We were surprised to find orange paintbrush |
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| Lots of Forget-Me-Nots at Swift |
We've been busy enjoying the wildflowers that are blooming everywhere in the mountains.
In the past week we've been to Swift Dam's Hurricane Ridge, the Highwood Mountains Center Ridge, and I've done my annual climb of Missoula's Mount Sentinel.
We're already seeing blooms that appear to be several weeks ahead of schedule, like Forget-Me-Nots, which we saw in clusters at Swift Dam.
I did a marathon car trip to climb Sentinel, covering nearly 600 miles by taking in the Missions, the east shore of Flathead Lake, the southern end of Glacier Park enroute home via the Front. I had many stops along the way, including the National Bison Range, Findley Point on Flathead Lake, and the waterfall on HIghway 2 pouring out of the Great Bear into Bear Creek.
The scenery along Flathead Lake, with snowcap mountains, blooming cherry trees and lake vistas was stunning. The wealthy developments in that area are also stunning, but in a bad way.
Missoula is bursting at the seams with development, but Mount Sentinel is as beautiful and challenging as ever. I made it to the top in 61 minutes, which felt very satisfying. I think it was my best time in several years. It didn't seem that difficult, either.
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| Wayne Phillips on Center Ridge in Highwoods |
Wayne Phillips joined me trip to Center Ridge in the Highwoods where we counted 17 varieties of wildflowers. We were both surprised to see the Arrowleaf Balsamroots dotting the hillsides. I found them in full bloom on Sentinel as well.
Finally, Katie and I went wildflower hunting at Swift Reservoir west of Dupuyer and counted 34 different kinds of wildflowers. The aqua color of the reservoir was beautiful against the snow-covered peaks of the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Badger-Two Medicine.
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| The Bear Creek waterfall spilling out of the wilderness |
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| The Mission Mountains near Polson showing off |
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