Another day in Paradise, aka in the alpine

Took a relaxed hike up Deer Mountain today, when I should have been inside packing boxes for another upcoming apartment move. But, I instead heeded one of my favorite John Muir quotes:  "The mountains are calling, and I must go." I went with two friends - D. and S. S.'s husband had gone up Deer at 3 a.m. in search of deer for his freezer, so S. intended to meet up with him and invited us along. Partway up the trail, he called her on his cell phone from the saddle near the Deer Mtn. summit and reported he was watching two does, but hadn't found any bucks. We took a break after finding A., had some snacks, and then headed back down. (Although I really wanted to keep hiking on to Blue Lake - the area mentioned in other posts.) The gentian flowers were out, so I tried to capture their beauty, with a somewhat blurry result.  Yellow monkey flowers were also still blooming  (we'd taken photos of them a month ago), and we also found some of the more elusive pink monkey flowers.
The lupine, which had been in full bloom in June and early July, are now spent, but I've added a photo of them as well taken on my late May hike to Blue Lake.

These blue gentian have been a favorite for me ever since I first noticed them in the alpine. They usually seem to appear in August. Officially broad-petaled gentian (I think), they open up only under strong sunlight, so most of our viewings in Southeast Alaska are of them tightly closed as in this shot. 

   

Yellow and pink monkey flowers which we also enjoyed seeing on Deer Mountain. 

Another favorite flower for many alpine lovers, including me, are lupine. This photo was taken back in May on a hike to Blue Lake. The lupine were out early, after an usually dry spring. Over the following weekends, the lupine were even more vibrant and were soon joined by other wildflowers, including the yellow and pink monkey flowers  (above) I've never seen as many yellow monkey flowers as this summer (or maybe I just paid more attention), and it was a cool surprise to also find the pink monkey flowers in several spots, as they seem much more elusive than the yellow species.

As I was entering this post, I found this card that I purchased long ago and it seemed appropriate to add it.  Titled "Alpine Lupine," of course, it is from a painting by Bruce Nelson of Kodiak Island.