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Sunshine Meaodws Field trip - Sunday August 7
Thank you to the participants of this trip (see the photo below) - we had a great time and the weather was wonderful. For those used to skiing at Sunshine a hike in the meadows is quite an experience. It is difficult to place yourself in the context of the deep snow that is seen in the winter time, and the skeletons of the lifts and other ski supoort structures seem rather erie without snow or skiers around.  The Sunshine Meadows group: Lyn, Karen, Harv, Dana (standing) and Walker (seated)  Photo by Dana Naldrett
Rock Isle Lake is one of the most popular sites for hikers at Sunshine Meadows. Trails go around the lake and there are plenty of opportunities to hotograph the lake and island from many different angles. We were hoping to catch the peak of the alpine flowers, but seem to have missed the best time by about a week. This summer was particularly difficult to time flower photography because of the cold and wet weather which made things late. At the begining of the summer it seemed as though flowers were 4-6 weeks behind, but as the summer progressed, things caught up, making estimating bloom time rather difficult.  Photo by Walker McBryde  Photo by Dana Naldrett
Some flowers were just caught at their best, as with this Western Heliotrope.
 Photo by Dana Naldrett
Many flowers were clearly past their prime, but the Western Anenomes had very nice looking seed heads and were very abundant, giving the fields a pattern of silver spikes.
 Photo by Dana Naldrett
As expected, the scenery was stunning! We had great opportunities at all scales for great shots, as shown below. The winding trails provided many opportunities to stop and photograph the flowers, or to take in the scenery, despite the other hikers.  Photo by Dana Naldrett  Photo by Walker McBryde
The map shown below gives an idea of the area covered in the photos above. Most were taken in the area from Rock Isle Lake to Larix Lake.
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