As the snows clear off the upper slopes of our mountains, perennials, annuals, and flowering shrubs make a brief appearance in a short growing season.  First to be noticed are the alpine buttercups, anemones, and avalanche lilies.   If we hike the Trophy Mountains in early July, we also see spring beauties, chickweed, hellebore,  false solomon's seal, draba, moss campion, twisted stalk, paintbrush, valerian, and marsh marigolds.   In June, the entire meadow is covered with avalache lilies:

Concurrent with this bloom are the anemones which later grace the slopes as towheads (or mop tops) after flowering:

In wet spots, we may be able to see marsh marigolds:

Spring beauties flourish in the open spots:

At the higher elevations, only a few smaller flowers can be spotted on the exposed slopes:

In the lower meadows, the main performers of the summer are growing and will soon cover the meadows.   Lupines, arnica, columbine, hellebores, paintbrush, valerian, cow parsnip, false solomons seal, rue, fleabane, sedges, and daisies will welcome hikers by August 1st.   Our annual trips into the Trophies are usually scheduled to early July, August 1st, and after the first frost (to one of the summits), three different versions of the Trophy Meadows experience.