Western Wyoming Wildflowers

Fringed Grass-of-Parnassus

Found along the banks of Corral Creek

Along with the beautiful landscapes we saw in Wyoming last week came an abundance of stunning mountain and desert wildflowers. My camera has a pretty good macro setting so I can get good detail in shots of even the smallest flowers.

Yellow Monkeyflower

Found on bank of Corral Creek

I was looking for the names of some of these flowers (still didn’t find all the ones I was looking for), and came across a great archive of western U.S. wildflowers, along with their common and Latin names. If you’re trying to identify flowers you found somewhere, check here first.

Mountain Harebells

Meadow in Black Canyon

Fringed Gentian

Meadow in Black Canyon

Pipsissewa

Found on the floor of a pine forest

Black Canyon above Greys River, WY

Indian Blanket (or Firewheel)

Found along shoulder of US Hwy 191

South of Pinedale, WY

Unknown 

(AKA Bon Jovi Hair Flower. You’re welcome, Lindsey!)

Found in a meadow on the trail to White Pine Lake

Cache National Forest, UT

Greys River, Wyoming

White Pine Lake, Cache National Forest, Utah

To celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary, Matt and I planned a camping trip to Greys River in western Wyoming. On the way there, we spent two nights at Red Banks Campground in the Cache National Forest in northern Utah, near Logan (where we lived for a year in 2003-04). We returned to White Pine Lake almost exactly six years after the first time we hiked it. This time the sky was clear, so the photos came out better (above).

 Greys River. Bridger National Forest, Wyoming.

Greys River splits the Salt River and Wyoming Mountain Ranges, and empties into the Snake River at Alpine, Wyoming. It is mostly known as a world-class fly-fishing site. We aren’t fisher-people at all, but we still found more than enough to keep ourselves occupied throughout our time there.

Man Peak over Greys River after a morning storm.

Corral Creek leads into Greys River.

I think we easily could’ve spent another week exploring along the Greys River. What an amazing place, and a beautiful river. The weather is totally unpredictable—one minute dark clouds would roll in and thunder would rumble, and a few minutes later the sun would shine warm and bright. We saw a variety of wildlife including moose, wild horses, antelope, and deer. My favorite thing to do is hunt for wildflowers, so look for my next post with images of all the flowers we found. 

The Corral Creek Trail was my favorite.

The five nights we spent along the Greys River in Wyoming were spectacular, with the added bonus that the whole week-long trip cost us less than $350. Next time maybe we’ll splurge and get a cabin at the Box Y Ranch...