A Rainy Day Hike in the Hills

June in Butte, Montana. Continental Divide in the Northern Rockies. It rains. Still, you go hiking. You don't necessarily want to, but you have to.

Many of our plants, like this lupine, evolved to capture the precious spring rains to store water for the endless blue-sky days of July and August. I love the way the water drops refract the leaves:

All things rejoice in the spring rains: these two Globeflowers (Trollius laxus) hold hands, turn their faces to the sky, and dance with joy:

No hike is complete without a mystery flower. Here, some species from the mustard/cress family, I think, given the four cross-like petals and tubular flowers:

Spirerock is a landmark near an old development from the Anaconda Mining Company days c. 1880 - 1910:

A logging camp with a half dozen or so cabins:

And a flume that was used to collect and float timber 15 miles or so across the Divide to feed the smelter in Anaconda and mines of Butte:

Look close and you might find a treasure like this 44 WCF (Winchester Center Fire) cartridge stuck into a log:

MollyTheDog: faster than a speeding bullet. Someday, perhaps when she is 4 or 5 years old, I'll get her to slow down and pose for a photo:

Quick! She's stopped on that snowdrift:

MTD is a pretty good dog, though--at least she didn't chase this gangly, yearling moose that we saw on another hike just north of town:

Watching the weather--we'd like to get and camp a night with the elk cows & calves before they move from the willow bottoms up into the hills.