Into the Mountains - Part 4

There are all sorts of interesting flowers and plants and animals up in the mountains as well. Sandy is quite the little naturalist so wanted Mama to tell him what all of the plants were...

First off, Sandy spotted tonnes of long-bearded anen... anem... amenomes... (oh shoot)... you know what he means! They are different than the ones down in the prairies.

There was also some pink mountain heather - but it wasn't quite the right season for blooming - and there were only a few little flowers. It makes for a nice springy walk.

Sandy has met the Richardson Ground Squirrels near home, but up here are the Columbia Ground Squirrels. They are quite pudgy some of them and very curious about such a little bear!

This lump had Sandy stumped for a while... mineral? vegetable? animal?... Mama said it was a puff ball mushroom and that it might be yummy to eat. But Sandy is not a friend of mushrooms (not even honeyed mushrooms!).

 There were also these white flowers and some blue forget-me-nots... The white flowers are... er... white flowers (for now).

Sandy has seen red Indian paintbrush, but this was the first time he saw pink ones... almost fuschia... beary pretty!

There were even some white/yellow ones...

 But the pink ones were his absolute favourite flowers up there.

Finally... there was a rabbit! He looked like a young rabbit and not a very smart one either. He noticed all the people (and the little bear) and hunkered down behind a bush and got very still.

 Which meant that Mama could get beary close and take a close-up of him...

It was great to be up in the alpine! Sandy learned a lot about mountains and flowers... and that even anemone seed-heads can have a bad hair day! (hah-hah!)...