Morning's Walk

I stepped out for an easy walk this morning before breakfast.  Actually, there are not many walks here at 7000' elevation that are easy for flatlander lungs of a certain age!  Yesterday, I set off on an "easy" bike ride around a neighborhood loop.  "There's just one big hill", says Brita.  I got to that hill, and just barely got maybe 1/4 of the way up, and stopped, gasping, at the side of the road!  Uff da!  And it wasn't just the lungs that were complaining, it was those under-used leg muscles, too!  We live our lives in East Bethel at about 900' elevation.  Our favorite trips are to visit our 2 "kids".  We visit our son in Whitefish, MT, at 3000'.  And continuing on, we visit our daughter and son-in-law in Truckee at 7000'!  That's a big mountain to climb.
The flora and fauna at 7000' are so distinctly different than back at home.  Here, it's all about survival.  The Donner party, which wasn't really a party at all, found that out the hard way.  The flowering plants have adapted over time to find the best ways to grow, and eke a bit of life from the rocks and sandy soil.  They are, in general, petite blossoms.  I took pictures of some of them along the power line trail, just steps from the Burke house.  The powerline cuts a large swath through the landscape, where trees have been removed and a small service road/trail remains for walkers, bikers, runners, etc.

I used only my iPhone 5 for these pictures, and they didn't turn out very well with the bright sun and trying to zoom in to get better pictures of these itty bitty blooms.  So, if you want to see far better pictures, go to this website, which is where I looked for the names of the plants.  I hesitate to even put names on these because I'm pretty sure they are not all correct.  Indian Paintbrush is one I know for sure.

Yellow Salsify

Mountain Coyote Mint??

Indian Paintbrush

One-seeded Pussy Paws

Lupine (I think) on a tiny scale

Colombian Monkshood, maybe?