OmegaMom

Another long day spent out and about.  The OmegaFamily had done the first part of the drive before, up Margaret Pass to the alpine summit lake.  At the lake, I found some purty flowers.  This is some type of sedum, and really very small:

At the lake, we had marmots and ground squirrels and magpies eating dead critters.  GrannyJ got one pic each of the marmot crossing the road (”Why does the marmot cross the road?”  “To get to the other side!”  Peals of laughter from the dotter) and of the magpie chowing down.

Yesterday, we went beyond the lake.  Here is the road we took through the mountains after going past the little lake:

There were mines (one is a state park and defunct, the other is a Going Concern).  There were oodles of purty alpine flowers that GrannyJ was trying to photograph, so here’s a shot of the lady in action:

And the dotter and I clambered about a bit, too:

Then we drove on down the road pictured above, through the tundra above the tree line, and then following a lovely mountain stream down into the beginning of the trees.  The beavers love this stream–everywhere we looked, there were beaver ponds, and a fine beaver lodge or two (the heaps of dead twigs by the side of the pond):

As we went further down, the stream got bigger, and so did the trees.  The dotter spent a delighted few minutes at this stop collecting “gold!”, aka quartz rocks.  We had purchased a vial of gold up at the mine, so she was determined to add to it.  OmegaDad warned us at this stop that it looked like Bear Country and we should Make Noise.  The dotter happily obliged, but, as GrannyJ noted, the stream made so much noise that it didn’t seem like it would make a difference.  We did not see any bears.

Another purty flower from this area, I believe–I think it’s valerian:

Our back road ended at the highway, and we turned northwards in hopes of getting a glimpse of The Big One.  Alas, there were clouds directly over the peak, so we never saw it.  We went on to the tourist town at the confluence of two rivers, which delighted GrannyJ with oodles of moose kitsch.  These were the only moose that she has seen so far in her visit; our marauding garden moose seem to have found greener pastures for the past few weeks.

There was a painting in one of the galleries that I swooned over and would love to own…alas, it’s $800, and that’s enough money for more practical purposes, so we won’t be getting that painting.  We wandered down to the beach by the rivers, and the dotter and I practiced skipping stones, both of us managing to skip a stone at least twice.  Woot!

The dotter is sporting a grand knit cap which was her gift from OmegaDad, and which she slept with (”It’s my nightcap, mommy!”).

Then we ate a tourist-town-priced dinner, and moseyed our way back, with a stop at this little lake to catch the setting sun:

That picture, by the way, was taken by the dotter.

We arrived home at 10 p.m., and all fell into bed soon thereafter.  Today:  a day of rest.  I mowed almost all of the backyard before the heavens opened up and poured down hail and great big fat raindrops; we are now getting afternoon thunderstorms (thunder!  Yay!) growing downward from the mountains.