The final two weeks of the trip were spent exploring choice alpine habitats in Washington, Idaho, Utah and Colorado. With a few exceptions, western North American orchid species are not known for their showy blossoms. Most elicit the response "that's an orchid?" when viewed by the layman. They are all of course very interesting to the scientest, but the eastern U.S. has the majority of "winner of show" type orchid species. 14 species of orchids were found on the last segment of the trip.

As we visited different areas I noticed an interesting phenomenon: apparent color-coordination of different wildflower species. At a site on the Wapshilla Ridge in Idaho, the three dominant species were all pastel; in the Manti La-Sal range in Utah two species with light blue flowers dominated; and near Copper Mt. Colorado, the color scheme was creamy-white. I have no idea why, but it is very aesthetically pleasing!

In Olympic Nat'l Park we re-visited the floral wonders of Hurricane Ridge Road that we had first seen in 2009. The late season now began to work against us; due to the record-breaking snowfall many areas were inaccessable and the peak bloom was still several weeks away! However, we did get to see a whole new group of earlier-blooming wildflower species on this visit. Thanks to Ron Hanko for a great Piperia elongata site on Whidbey Island, in the Puget Sound of Washington.

The same held true in the North Cascades in Washington state. The fabeled Artist's Point area was not even plowed out in 2011. We found a motherlode of three species of coralroot orchids in prime bloom and just missed Calypso, but there were no big wildflower displays.

We traveled on to the panhandle of Idaho, where we were hosted by orchid friends Gerry and Elaine Queener. Freezout Ridge, the area north of Moscow that they had planned to show us was again still under snow. But not to worry; we went on an exciting fossil dig, saw a 3,000 year old Western Red Cedar tree and had a great time searching for Spiranthes porrifloia high up on Wapshilla Ridge in the Hell's Canyon area. Alas, we didn't find it, but did find some beautiful Calochortus nitidus.

In the Bear River Range of northern Utah we were amazed to see glacier lily (Erythronium grandiflorum) and spring beauty (Claytonia lanceolata) in prime bloom in the high mountains on August 3rd. We had seen the same two genera blooming in the Smoky Mts. of Tennessee in the middle of April. Still chasing spring... Record-breaking rainfall produced a "100 year bloom" of wildflowers in Utah, an experience we'll never forget. Continuing on to Moab, in southern Utah we finally (on our third attempt) found Platanthera zothecina (alcove bog orchid) in bloom. Spring was again found in the high alpine meadows of the nearby Manti-La Sal Range.

The big trip was almost over as we headed back to New York through Colorado on Interstate 70. We took our time going through the Rockies on the final day and managed to visit two more orchid sites on our way back east. We had been on the road for 5 weeks and had driven almost 10,000 miles. An incredible, once in a lifetime experience!

Click on the images to enlarge them or view the slideshow. It really helps!