Montana Prairie Hike

As usual, our snowstorm of last week was followed by glorious bluebird weather. Friend Dave Carter & JackTheDog joined me for a hike on the prairie near Melrose, Montana, near the Big Hole River (half-hour south of Butte):

Sadly, RolyTheDog stayed home. Even a few miles of crosscountry hiking is more than her old body can bear. Jack had no one to share this tasty (?) antelope leg with:

This is also mule deer country, as evidenced by this partial skull with antlers:

And by this small band of mulie does and yearlings watching us from the rocks and Curl-leaf Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) along a low ridge:

Strangely, we noticed that some of the dried deer, elk, and antelope droppings were very red--perhaps from eating Rocky Mountain Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) or some other plant with a lot of red pigment?

The droppings are sometimes impaled upon spines of the Plains Prickly Pear cactus (Opuntia polyacantha):

Much less common, the Cushion Cactus or Spiny Star (Coryphantha vivipara) is occasionally found here too. This one will be soon be bursting forth with its showy, reddish-purple flowers:

Hoods Phlox or Carpet Phlox (Phlox hoodi) is abundant and was in full bloom with its tiny flowers:

At first we thought these were blooms too on this Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tredentata). But it's way too early for sagebrush flowers, and I think these are some sort of gall caused by a Cynipid wasp:

The geology too is interesting in this area, with volcanic, granite, and limestone contact zones (and some small mines). We weren't sure what these nodules of stone were (perhaps harder inclusions with softer material eroded away), but they were interesting:

This colony of lichen reminds us that life and time wear away all things:

And don't forget to look up once in awhile. The two golden eagles were too far away for a good photo, but here's a good view northeast toward the snowcapped Highland Mountains just south of Butte: