If you were
to visit Paradise Valley at this time of the year and could see the entire
region held fast in winter's icy grip -- with all the buildings snowed
under or with but a portion of their roofs exposed -- you would wonder if
any kind of flower could ever bloom here. And yet if you saw the
same place at the height of the summer season when the hills everywhere
are carpeted with a mass of varied flowers whose brilliance embraces every
shade in the rainbow, we could not blame you a particle if you scoffed at
the stories that you would hear relative to the enormous amount of snow
which is customary here. These high parks about "The Mountain" are
certainly studies in contrast!
With the melting of the snow comes the Avalanche Lily or Dogtooth
Violet whose legions advance on the heels of the receeding snowbanks --
oftentimes pushing their way through the snow itself. It's beauty is
rivaled in the high parks at that early season by the Western Anemone
whose large buttercup-like flowers fall apart in a short time to give way
to the development of unique seed pods, that resemble an old fashioned
feather duster, in the fall. In the dense timber of the lower slopes we
find the fragrant Twinflower, a member of the Honeysuckle family, the
Canadian Dogwood and the Trillium which is the earliest of our flowers in
the Park and which is, even now, in bloom here and there.
There are
approximately 750 species of flowering plants native to this Park,
embracing all manner of habitat. We find the Oregon Grape, Salal and
Pacnystima among the vegetation of the moist, shaded forest floor at the
lower elevations; Skunk Cabbage, Shooting Star and the Red and Yellow
Mimulus grows in marshy or very moist places while the barren cliffs are
brightened by the Pentstemon which seems to find ample nourishment in some
crevice. And of course the Indian Paint Brush, Lupine and various members
of the Aster family brighten the meadows. There is heather too -- three
species, the red, the white and the yellow being most common. But the
number of species is not the remarkable thing about our flower fields --
it is the spontaneity of bloom that arouses interest. The variety of
flowers that would ordinarily occupy a blooming period of several months
literally burst into flower under the influence of warm July sunshine and
the ample moisture of receeding snowbanks. And so the variety of color and
species as well as their great number is concentrated in the rather short
period between the disappearance of the snow in mid summer to the return
of King Boreas to the region in the early fall.
When are the flower fields at their best? Ordinarily the last week or
ten days of July and the first week or ten days in August.
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If you were
to visit Paradise Valley at this time of the year and could see the entire
region held fast in winter's icy grip -- with all the buildings snowed
under or with but a portion of their roofs exposed -- you would wonder if
any kind of flower could ever bloom here. And yet if you saw the
same place at the height of the summer season when the hills everywhere
are carpeted with a mass of varied flowers whose brilliance embraces every
shade in the rainbow, we could not blame you a particle if you scoffed at
the stories that you would hear relative to the enormous amount of snow
which is customary here. These high parks about "The Mountain" are
certainly studies in contrast!
There are
approximately 750 species of flowering plants native to this Park,
embracing all manner of habitat. We find the Oregon Grape, Salal and
Pacnystima among the vegetation of the moist, shaded forest floor at the
lower elevations; Skunk Cabbage, Shooting Star and the Red and Yellow
Mimulus grows in marshy or very moist places while the barren cliffs are
brightened by the Pentstemon which seems to find ample nourishment in some
crevice. And of course the Indian Paint Brush, Lupine and various members
of the Aster family brighten the meadows. There is heather too -- three
species, the red, the white and the yellow being most common. But the
number of species is not the remarkable thing about our flower fields --
it is the spontaneity of bloom that arouses interest. The variety of
flowers that would ordinarily occupy a blooming period of several months
literally burst into flower under the influence of warm July sunshine and
the ample moisture of receeding snowbanks. And so the variety of color and
species as well as their great number is concentrated in the rather short
period between the disappearance of the snow in mid summer to the return
of King Boreas to the region in the early fall.