Meeting at the ranger station in Ennis, the car tour covered about 60 miles round trip, mostly on gravel roads, and moved through all the vegetation zones from the Madison River Valley to the alpine zone at the top of the mountain range. After driving through the foothills, the first stop was in the montane zone. Summer flowers abounded, and showy arrowleaf balsamroot covered large swaths of the hillside.
Arrowleaf balsamroot
Flax
Parry's Townsendia
Phlox
Ball Anemone
Fields of blossoming bistort reached their white blooms above the other flowers.
At the second stop the colors were different, and the fascinating pink prairie smoke and delicate forget-me-not dominated fields scattered with lambs-tongue groundsel.
Prairie smoke
Forget-me-not
Lambs-tongue groundsel
There was a lunch stop in a lush subalpine meadow ringed with firs and adorned with tiny wildflowers, of which the most showy was the shooting star.
Shooting star
The tour then proceeded another five miles, past meadows full of beautiful blue sky pilot and other flowers, surrounded by amazing views of snow-capped peaks and ridges in every direction.
Sky pilot
Finally reaching the alpine zone at an overlook above the Ruby Creek drainage, old man of the mountain smiled his sunny smile above plants like kitten tails and draba which hugged the ground, and sky pilot bloomed its beautiful blue. The adaptable paintbrush, found from lower elevations up to the alpine zone, is quite stunted at this elevation.
Old man of the mountain
Kitten tails
Draba
Paintbrush
