It is high summer in Yellowstone. If the calendar and the weather didn’t tell me so, the tourists who blithely abandon their cars and RVs to get a better look at a buffalo (elk , bear, coyote) – in the middle of the road, at the top of a hill, on a blind curve — would suffice as the bellwether indicator species. At the lower elevations, the lovely lush spring greens we experienced for longer than normal thanks to the very wet June, are morphing into the golden hues of August. The hot weather and dry winds of the past few weeks have already sucked all of the green out of the hills just above Gardiner. I already miss those greens of summer – we have them for such a short time. But the high meadows of YNP have exploded into fields of color in an exceptionally good year for flowers. The bad news is that the biting flies and mosquitoes have also exploded into hordes of blood-sucking vampires that make just getting out of the car a TV reality show-worthy-adventure, let alone trying to set up for a macro shot. The stars of the show this week are geraniums, lupines, and the helianthella (little sunflowers) which are draped across the slopes of Mt. Washburn like a gold crown.

The helianthella have peaked but the Coming Attraction: acres and acres of fireweed which are just beginning to open.  The slopes above Antelope Creek where the fire burned late last season are going to be quite spectacular. Another season cycles through Yellowstone Time. How does it go by so fast only to return even more quickly? Wishing you could be here.