Last weekend we finally hiked to White Chief together, Trail Guy and I. He has been multiple times this summer but was willing to return.

Mariposa Lilies were abundant, almost the only wildflower making a good showing this summer. We did see a few of my almost favorite penstemon, the one whose real name I don’t know.

White Chief was beautiful, as always.

The trail was steep as always. It was kind of hot out, my feet felt clumsy in real shoes instead of Tevas, and my face got all red, according to Trail Guy. I actually felt sort of light-headed, so we went to the creek and got cooled off.

There were quite a few of these usually overlooked flowers, but since it was almost all that was in bloom, I searched the name out when I got home. It is probably Oval-Leaved Buckwheat.

(Off) Trail Guy also found a flower that we haven’t seen for about 15 years, one that we dubbed “Mop Heads”. I looked it up when we got home, and learned it is Western Anemone.

And no, I didn’t pick it, just stabilized it for the photo and also included my aged hand so you can see the scale. It’s against the law to pick wildflowers in National Parks – did you know that?