Cedar Breaks National Monument -- Wildflowers Along Ramparts Trail

Saturday, June 14, I was up at Cedar Breaks. They have public telescope viewing at Point Supreme Visitor Center every Saturday, from more or less Memorial Day through Labor Day, with occasional special events during the week, as well. I brought my 8" Dobsonian to help show folks the stars. No night time shots, however. It got cloudy once the public portion was over.

This first shot is from the Ramparts Overlook, about two miles from the Visitor Center. The other shots are of wildflowers I passed along the way.

These next two shots are of Colorado Columbine. Apparently, it's Colorado's state flower. But, here they are, in Utah. ;)

The first shot lets you see their columbine-ness.

The second shot is mostly face-on, so they don't look as columbine-ish, at least not to me. They vary some in color, with some being mostly white, and some having a more purplish hue. All have the yellow stamen.

These were probably the second most common flower on this trip. I recognized them from a late summer hike, a few years ago. I thought there'd be more flowers earlier in the season, but this may have been too early. Also, I didn't have time to do the Alpine Pond trail. I'll try for that, next month.

These are King flax. They were growing on the exposed, graveling ground near the end of the trail.

Richardson's geranium, I believe. No, I don't know these guys by sight. I had a Cedar Breaks wildflower app on my old phone. Downloaded it from the Cedar Breaks National monument website. But they don't seem to have it for Android, any more. Weird. So I need to use my old phone to look that up. They also have a number of flowers on their standard map and guide handout, and on the web page.

Aspen bell. By far the most common flower, but much smaller, and somewhat pale. They were thick, in places, as I think the next shot will show.

Yep, thickly, here. They look best NOT in direct sunlight, as otherwise they are just too bright, and they photograph pale.

The white ones here are cushion phlox. The yellow ones are Lemmon's spring parsley. Yes, I had to look these guys up, too.

These are Basin groundsel.

Parry's primrose. They were growing adjacent to the little creek of water that flows between Spectra Point (one mile from the trailhead) and Ramparts Overlook, and nowhere else. They look like they need a lush environment, so probably more common in marshy meadows.

Many of these flowers, I only saw a few examples, or examples in a very limited space. As mentioned, the Colorado Columbine and Aspen bells were the exception. Hope to see a more complete bloom a little later in the season.