Veenstras' Trail

 We finally made it all the way up the trail to the overlook yesterday, and we saw so many sights along the way.  But first, my happy place:

There are still areas of snow, enough for Mirabella and Dempsey to lie down in and get snowcones.  My girl will find the last little bits of snow until it's all gone, and then she will be sad.  Because of the snow still on the trail, there are rivers of water coming down and mud, mud, mud.  Fortunately, Dempsey didn't lie down in the mud puddles, as he loves to do.  We're of course not out of the woods, literally, on that, but Mike has the hose hooked up for dog rinsing.

We saw bear prints in the snow, huge prints.  They were heading uphill, luckily, and I was for once smart enough to bring our bear horn.  There weren't any sightings on our part, but I would bet they saw us.

There were four to five new trees down on the trail.  Mike was thrilled, of course, because he'll get to take his chain saw and clear the path.  One of the trees was an aspen with buds on it, so that was a recent fall, probably from that last heavy, wet snowfall last week.  

The bog higher up in the big meadow was wide and long, and Mirabella found it to her liking.  

And, last but not least, the wildflowers!  There were three kinds blooming, and they were everywhere in the big meadow.

spring pasqueflower

sagebrush buttercup

lanceleaf springbeauty