Winter in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley can be unpredictable, frigid, scary at times, intimately closed in, and gorgeous. Each day can bring surprises of all kinds, and weather is no exception. One winter day the sun rose, the clouds gathered, the storms came, and the snow blanketed both the valley and our adventure. Come along and share winter’s embrace.
Up, up, up into the mountains above Lamar Valley, with summer flowers and grasses waist-high. Walking poles become test devises for holes we can’t see in the lush foliage. Careful, there are holes deep enough to be up to your thigh with only one leg. Falling is always possible, but trusty poles help. These tripping dangers are the result of bison weight in the mud last spring, Uinta ground squirrels’ burrowing systems connecting their large community, and nature’s backhoe and rototiller, the badger, that digs holes up to 30 feet long and a foot in diameter. We will take our time, watch our step, and revel in the beauty of the hillsides that call us on.
Sitting in the shade of the conifers, bit of marsh below, resting against a rock, we are cushioned by deep, soft needles. Decades of needles absorbing random noise. Horsetail plants thriving in the dampness of the marsh, tall grasses waving in the breeze. A nap is not out of order.
Slow down, stop talking, enjoy the wind, the rustling grasses, and bird song. Is that a stream we hear or the wind blowing though the conifers? A chipmunk scampering along a downed tree, a chickadee we hear but cannot see. Flickers and Clark’s nutcrackers high in the trees adding their voices to the day’s chorus.
Aspens trembling in the breeze adding their black on white texture to the landscape. Sticky Geraniums presenting a symphony of pink. Indian Paintbrush popping scarlet staccatos. A crescendo of scattered white and yellow flowers. Always the conifers standing guard and keeping time. Take a deep breath, soak it in . . .
Welcome to summer in the Rockies!
What are those tall stalks growing in the meadows? Do you see them? Let’s explore.
This four- foot stalk is covered with small flowers, and the flowers are green with purple dots. They look more like they belong in subtropic areas of the world, not the meadows of Yellowstone. So unusual and so beautiful.
This is a Green Gentian (Frasera speciosa), also called the Monument Plant, and is monocarpic. No, I didn’t know what that was either, but it thoroughly explains this unique plant. Green gentian can live to be 80 years old, but each year of its life all you see are the pretty basal leaves growing a few feet tall and reaching to the sky until . . .
. . . the last year of its life when it produces a stalk from 4 to 7 feet tall covered with beautiful small flowers. The flowers range from pale green to white with purple or blue dots, but I’ve only ever seen the flowers in shades of green. This is the “monument” phase. Each flower produces up to 60 seeds ensuring the next generation. The plant then dies leaving the dead stalk which may stand a few years, as you can see above.
So “monocarpic” means growing many years without flowering, then flowering and dying after its seeds are developed. We may see many stalks across a meadow or only a few, but the stalks tell us that this is the last hoorah of this amazing monument plant.
Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley is a sparkling winter wonderland, and the Lamar Buffalo Ranch is an ideal mid-valley location with a bit of civilized warmth from the frigid winter surrounds. The ranch was instrumental in saving bison from extinction in this country in the early 1900’s. Today, although not open to the public, the ranch hosts educational opportunities through Yellowstone Forever Institute and the National Park Service’s Expedition Yellowstone.
Let’s walk up to where Rose Creek splits into three separate creeks as it races down into the valley to join the Lamar River. The trail is hard packed, but we will put ice-traction cleats on our boots for safety. It is a little after 10am and about 8 degrees, but with no wind, it feels much warmer. What a beautiful day! Don’t forget your sunglasses.
