Wildflowers, Take 2

Today I went to Leatherwood Ford and walked along the Angel Falls Rapids trail, the same one Dad and I walked near the river a few days ago. I would have gone there again eventually, but I figured out that my camera batteries had been really low when I was there before, and a lot of my flower photos didn’t turn out very clear. I was hoping to retake a few of them while the flowers were still there.

A lot of them were still there, but quite a few weren’t – and some were just in the middle of wilting away. It was a lovely walk, with that late-day sunlight – and it went more quickly than it did before, because I sort of knew where to look for the flowers. (Also, there were a few mosquitoes out, which is always an incentive to keep moving… they find you when you stop!) I went a bit further than we did before, and even thought of walking to the end – but that’s a full two miles each way, and I didn’t want to run out of energy halfway back. Then I wasn’t sure if the sun went behind a cloud, or had started dropping behind the wall of the gorge – but it was definitely less bright out, and I wasn’t prepared for a night hike!

Coreopsis! This wasn't there before! Also, notice the spider that's totally photobombing this shot, hanging underneath on the right side... I did NOT know that was there at the time!

Daisy fleabane - this is blooming everywhere but I hadn't actually stopped to get a picture of it!

I think this is ragwort. It was interesting to see the transition from flower to seeds\fluff.

A lot of the trilliums were shrivelling up.

Jack-in-the-pulpit - this was actually a different one than the one we saw the other day!

Here's some intact ragwort.

The orchids were on the way out as well.

Three types of trillium in one shot! Would that be three trillia?

Gah! Another spider that I did not know was there! This is odd - I often make a point of taking pictures of bugs on flowers, but these pictures came out great and I didn't even know anything was there! ("Bugs" in this case refers to any insect, spider, etc. )

I was trying to figure out why this false Solomon's seal looked off, then I realized the flowers weren't quite open. Here's another one for comparison.

Beavers have been pruning around here...