Where the glaciers meet the high meadows; spring, summer, and fall pass in the blink of an eye. The plants and creatures that call this fleeting alpine paradise home must wake, feast, reproduce and prepare for the return of the long winter months all in the space of a brief handful of weeks. Among the most striking and lasting flowers to grace these remote and lonely places is Old Mans Beard, Old Man of the Mountain, Western Pasque Flower, Anemone occidentalis.
Most often pictured in after it has bloomed and gone to seed, the Old Men of the Mountain stand stoic sentinels of the kingdoms of marmots and mountain goats in the waning months of summer. They are wise old souls, quiet companions of weary hikers bobbing their thickly bearded heads in sympathy and understanding.
After miles of switchbacks, stairs, and endless dusty lengths of trail these little wise dwarfs grant one a hearty greeting to the high country. Their soft down a welcome contrast to the jagged and unforgiving peaks and frosty fields of ice that are their close companions. In the morning their swirled mustachios are jeweled with heavy dew, and in the late fall as the colors turn they remain resolute even unto the first snowfall. The Old Men of the Mountain are rugged, and easily weather the most ferocious of summer storms, though some may start to bald with age.
Many pilgrims to the high places of the world assume these sage mountain spirits were always old, so bushy and venerable is their appearance. Yet, Old Men of the Mountain were once young as other flowers, those other fragrant alpine blossoms burn bright and fade to nothing. Old Mans beard is of cannier stock, and ages with grace. They are intrepid sorts that burst forth while snow yet lays all about, and they quickly bloom with thick and hardy pale petals, muscular hairy stalks, and beefy green shoulders that put those who would vie for their dominance at bay.
Of all the flowers to grace the slopes and wide meadow lands of Mt. Rainier, the Cascades, and Olympics, The Old Men of the Mountain are both first to rise and last to slumber. Hardy miniature mountaineers, and part of the beautiful quilt of natural beauty that makes the mountains of the Pacific Northwest such special places to journey through.
_________________________________________________________________________
Written for the #NatureWritingChallenge
