Wildflower Walks

The snow has been falling since yesterday here in Missoula, and while it’s not sticking on the valley floor, there’s a frosty layer up in the Pattee Canyon National Recreation Area.
For the purposes of this blog, it’s something of a mixed blessing.
On the one hand, it’s unfortunate because the glacier lilies and trilliums that were [...]

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I’ve received a few wildflower reports in recent days from people following me on Twitter and in the office.
In the Bitterroot Valley, Twitter user wapiti_waters is seeing pasqueflowers, shooting stars, arrowleaf balsamroot and dogtooth violets.
Twitter user oh2bnMT saw yellowbells and shooting stars on a walk up Mount Jumbo.
And Missoulian sports editor Bob Meseroll reports that [...]

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A reminder: The main Blue Mountain National Recreation Area trailhead will be shut down for about three weeks starting Monday while the U.S. Forest Service’s Missoula Ranger District completes an expansion project there.
According to a news release, the trailhead is expected to reopen May 15.
The trailhead expansion will increase parking capacity, provide equestrian facilities and [...]

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Pasqueflowers started blooming at the Blue Mountain National Recreation Area over the weekend. Find them among the grass and duff as you enter the trees above the lower hills.
This is one of my favorite early spring flowers because of its size and color. The cup-shaped, purple flower is about 1 to 2 inches across and [...]

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What’s all that green where the grass fire burned on Mount Sentinel last year? Missoulian reporter Rob Chaney has the story.
“So far, it’s a mix of desirable bunchgrasses and wildflowers competing with unwanted cheatgrass and tumble mustard,” he writes.
Read more here.

Justin Grigg

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What wildflowers are you seeing on your adventures in western Montana? Drop me an e-mail at jgrigg@missoulian.com and I’ll share it on Wildflower Walks.
Justin Grigg

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Spring is finally here, and so are the first wildflowers of the season.
At Blue Mountain, the buttercups and yellowbells are going strong. You’ll also shooting stars just starting. And pasqueflowers are rising from the pine needles, getting ready to open.
On Waterworks Hill, look for pink mats of Rocky Mountain Douglasia. The green tendrils of bitterroots [...]

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