I've visited Mount Rainier many times over the past several decades, almost always during the last week of July. However, this past visit was different than any other. Last winter was one of the mildest on record, with low snowpack amounts and warm temperatures, followed by a hot spring and summer. The result was a wildflower season that occurred six weeks early! While usually when we arrive the spring flowers are just beginning to transition into early summer blooms, this year, the flowering season for most species had already finished, leaving the Park feeling a lot like autumn. Because of this anomaly, I had to exercise a bit of creativity with my photography.
I WAS able to find a few species - like the purple Gentians seen here or the magenta Monkeyflowers I've been featuring over the past several days - still blooming in marshy areas or next to streams. However, I found myself focusing quite a bit on clusters of bright orange Mountain-Ash berries and the ruddy Fall leaves of an unidentified tundra plant. I wonder what conditions next winter will bring, especially since an El Nino pattern is currently in the forecast?
Photos: (Top) Mountain-Ash berries; (Middle) Mountain Bog Gentian;
(Bottom) Unidentifed leaves of a tundra plant. All three photos
were taken in Mount Rainier National Park, WA, on July 28-29, 2015
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