June Flowers

At 7500 feet on Pole Mountain, blooms are everywhere in June. 

Wild Blue Flax

Globemallow

lupine

Sego Lily (Utah state flower - Native Americans and Mormon pioneers roasted and ate the bulbs of this plant.)

Penstemon

Fleabane and Phlox

? Mustard family?

Trail Lunch

It's always good to stop for a meal on the trail.

On Pole Mountain, 4 years after the burn, the grass is good and a few alfalfa plants have moved in from nearby fields.  The horses love that.

Daisy  finds a deer spine to chew on.  Now that's delicious!

The Buzz on Babies

Remember the flicker eggs that we found in an aspen tree cavity on Pole Mountain? 

We went back to see if the eggs hatched.  And they did!  They're so young their eyes are still closed and they still have egg teeth (hard projections on the beak used to break through the shell.)  We didn't see the parents this time, but our reading says that the chicks are fed regurgitated ants for the first several weeks.
In reading about flickers, we learned that, when disturbed, the babies buzz loudly, sounding much like an angry hive of bees. 

Check out Steve's video to hear what we heard.  How about that for a survival mechanism?  If we hadn't seen a nest there 2 weeks ago, we would have stayed away to avoid getting stung.

Renewal

In 2007, the Neola Fire burned the foothills of Pole Mountain. 

Today, although burned tree skeletons still stand, the meadows are lush with green grass and flowers. 

Above is a ponderosa pine tree with a charred trunk and dead lower limbs, while the top of the tree is alive and well. 

Steve scraped off the charring and saw that it only went about 1/3 inch deep.  The bark beneath is healthy. 

The fire burned off brush and scrub trees, leaving the meadows more open than before, providing better grass for wildlife.  The earth renews.