Photo of the day

I went for a different hike today because the tram was closed.  I had hiked up to about 8,800 feet and gone close to 5 miles when I came across a two hikers who had stopped to photograph a flower.  I was glad to see that they had stopped because I might have overlooked it.  It is a Pulsatilla otherwise known as a pasqueflower.  Since it blooms around the time of Easter, it has the name pasque which means: of Easter.

Larger   images will be over in the Journal when I post all of the images there.

The two men also told me about a flowering cactus that they had seen just a short ways up the trail.  I had almost decided to turn around because my boots were bothering me but the idea of finding a flowering cactus so high up the mountain so early in the season intrigued me.  I had seen the first claret cactus in bloom down around 6,500 feet and I could not imagine another cactus blooming so high on the mountain.

Commonly known at a mountain ball cactus, its scientific name is Pediocactus simpsonii.  It is one of the most cold hardy species which it would have to be, seeing as I found it in a very narrow range on the south peak approach above 9,300 feet. It grows very low to the ground and is not of significant note except when it is blooming.