7-18-04: The contrast of the bright flowers against the gray and white of the rock and snow is pretty neat, too.

7-18-04: The pink flower is called Indian paintbrush and the yellow one lousewort. I liked the way they looked against the tree bark.

7-18-04: This lovely alpine flower is called pussypaws.

7-18-04: A close look and a lot of imagination can make you see little fuzzy toes.

7-18-04: A close look at the smaller peak of Ranier, Little Tahoma. The whole mountain was called Tahoma by the native tribes.

7-18-04: A curious (and not particularly shy) groundsquirrel.

7-18-04: This odd beast is called a pasqueflower. This is its seeding stage, like a dandilion. I really enjoyed seeing these strange things all over the fields.

7-18-04: This is one of my favorite pictures from this trip. Its called a Tolmie saxifrage. Take aclose look at the structure of this flower – it has two sizes of petals, and the smaller petals have big red beads on the ends when young. The center of the flower is divided into two (or sometimes more) sections that look like tiny strawberries. The flowers themselves were only a centimeter or so wide, so you had to look close to appreciate their strange beauty.

7-18-04: A little blue butterfly living up in the alpine meadows.

7-18-04: At the end of the trail was Frozen Lake. In this photo you can just barely see the ghostly blue of the ice beneath the water's edge. You can also see the gray clouds gathering overhead! We scurried back down the hill just as it started to drizzle.