Beauties of the Sierra

In the next few posts, I’ll be writing about some of the spectacular plants of the High Sierra (as I spent several days roaming the stretch of Highway 4 between Lake Alpine and Markleeville last week). It’s a beautiful and varied landscape, cresting at Ebbett’s Pass at over 8,700 feet. There are granite slopes, windswept cliffs, pine forests, sagebrush deserts and wet meadows.

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And the plants are varied as well, from the lush blooms of the desert to the tiny beauties of the meadows. And, of course, everything in between. Some of the flowers grow here in the lowlands as well (such as the water buttercup and speedwell I wrote about earlier this week) but they bloom later at high altitudes. Others look similar to our local varieties, but are different species. And some don’t look like anything around here at all!