Plant Travels and Excursions

Here are a few shots from a hike into the start of the very popular Skoki Loop route, in Banff National Park... we went across Boulder Pass, the first point of interest, and wandered around Ptarmigan Lake, and called it a day.
Rather than belabour a lot of plant species I've shown in other threads, I'll just show some of the different and interesting ones here.
1) Leaving the forest and looking west from meadow, at Mount Temple and the Seven Sisters, in the distance
2, 3) Platanthera dilatata, in wet meadow

A couple of years ago I visited Caucasus and the highest mountain in Europe - Elbrus (5642m/18510ft). There is a rich flora in this area but I am sorry to say I didn't picture many plants at that time. I had no time to walk on my knees!
If I ever get the chance I will revisit this place and pay more attention to plants.

This is where I have been working this past 2 weeks. The Tablelands are a large plateau located in Gros Morne National Park. the rocks here are serpentinized peridotite..the rocks turn orange as they oxidize. The resulting soil (and I use the term loosely) is toxic to most plants hence the area looks like a moonscape or almost desert-like. However, they do get plenty of rain...enough that pitcher plants grow in the gravel!

Twenty days later, here is an update to "Alpine Hike #2":
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=348.0

A bit of a falsehood for my first posting on this thread :) --(however i promise that my next posting will be of a trip to view alpines at sea level --then into the mountains proper).

I thought members might be interested in seeing what most of New Zealand would have looked like, before land clearance and timber harvesting reduced the size of the native podocarp forests.

We arrived June 28th and left July 12th. There had been a big snowstorm in the alpine areas two weeks beforew we arrived so there was still snow in places and the season was quite early. Although we missed many plants in full bloom such as Pyhsoplexis comosa we made up for it by seeing colonies of Ranunculus seguieri in full glorious bloom. I'll post pictures in batches but not always in any logical order, sorry.

Here are a few photos from a short and easy hike the other day in Kananaskis Prov. Park... We didn't see many plants I haven't shown before, so I won't repeat them... this will be mostly just a few that I haven't worn out too badly yet, and a bit of scenery from a beautiful day.

We did another of our favourite local hikes yesterday, this one into an environment of surrounding peaks, boulder rockslides, tarns, and snow.

I can't beat Lori's fantastic alpine tour but here is my version of rocky affairs at the moment.

The Archipelago of Kragerø, Norway, consists of about 450 islands, many small and some larger (up to about 8 x5 km²). Most of them are covered by pine forest. The area is a popular place for boating with lots of narrow fjords, inlets, beaches etc. Almost all islands have summerhouses and a few have year-round residents. At the southeast coast you get the best summer weather in Norway here.

Finally, the rainy weather let up long enough for us to get a hike in! First hike of the year, yesterday, was Forgetmenot Ridge in Kananaskis - an unrelenting, uphill grind on a very steep, rough trail, yet still a favourite as it is close by, and, despite (or thanks to) the heart-pounding effort, you do get up there fast!