Sunday, July 24, 2011

High desert then some lodging mishaps

We started yesterday day by leaving room #1 and collecting right by the motel.  Dee, the owner, let us take a few wild things from the property, including this Sidalcea.  Dee and her husband Dale ran a real nice place.  They want to retire so the A la Cozy, built in 1952,  is for sale.









Later on we stopped along the way at this site in the high desert.  It was very diverse, although at first glance you wouldn't think so.


This was the farm/ranch just across the street.  Nice.



We collected a lot of specimens we hadn't seen anywhere else.




Amidst all this was this one single amazing Calochortus.  What was this doing here in all this dry heat?  We left it since there was only one.



I made a little high desert bouquet.  I like working with desert plants because they are so dry you can just tie them with string.  Later, I left it on a picnic table at a health food co-op in Spokane.




   



Now for the un-fun part.  We have been real lucky on this trip, always finding a place to stay when we need it.  We really can't plan much in advance since we are following the plants more than an itinerary.  Last night our luck ran out big time.  (Rick - you would have freaked, although you never would have been in this situation) We pushed to get kind of close to Glacier only to find every hotel for miles around totally booked.  One place offered a conference room with no bath for $75. So at 11:30 last night,  just after passing into mountain time and losing an hour, we had to drive to Missoula for lodging.  That's 120 miles.  In the dark, everything looks like New Jersey.  Now, as I write this we are making the same drive back all along glacial lakes and Rocky Mountain scenery.  Really gorgeous.  We are off to a very slow start since we were wiped last night.  We have to just drive through Glacier and then through an Indian reservation before we stop for the night..  Tomorrow morning I have to be in a cell service zone for a conference call.  Oh reality.  

More later.  I hope to see bears and will post video if we do.  Latin names of above plants to follow.  Daniel is driving and I don't want to distract him from the task at hand.  Here are two we took a few minutes ago.  We are getting close to Glacier so bye for now.  









1 comment:

  1. You should called Chirs.. He lives in Missoula. Youmay have driven by the weather offices too.

    ReplyDelete