Wildflowers Are Colorful Blanket on Big Mountain

By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

WHITEFISH – There’s a blaze burning atop Big Mountain, flowery flames of fireweed torching red against bright blue sky.

The ember-tipped stalks reach hip-high amid crackling dry grass, a riot of scarlet blossoms kindled by sunlight.

“It’s been pretty dry,” said Jessie Bebb, “and so the flowers aren’t exactly right at their peak.”
Still, she said, the explosion of color is painting a brilliant mountain landscape, a dazzling foreground for the tremendous views spreading across the Flathead Valley’s background.

Bebb is a seasonal ranger with the Forest Service, working from the Nature Center located in the village area of Whitefish Mountain Resort.

From her perch below Mogul’s restaurant, Bebb and others take visitors on daily nature and wildflower walks at 11 a.m. and then again at 3 p.m, right on through August.

The guided walks are free, because wildflowers should always be free. Sometimes, the 20-minute stroll takes 45 minutes, if no one objects, because wildflowers should never be rushed.

Bebb’s been walking through a carpet of paintbrush and pearly everlasting, through harebell and bluebell and queencup lilies. The huckleberries are ripe in the sun, she said, and the thimbleberries are just coming on.

Beneath the showy fireweed are rosy pussytoes and asters, spirea, yarrow, penstemon.

Delicate columbines still hide in shadowed shade on forest’s edge.

Usually, Bebb said, the summertime nature walks begin on top of the mountain, from the Summit House. But this year chairlift repairs have hobbled Big Mountain access, and so the hikes are growing, like the flowers, from the bottom up.

For the kids, the Nature Center offers all the Junior Ranger materials, keeping the short hikes fun, like nature’s scavenger hunts. For the adults, there’s field guides and binoculars on loan.

Twinberry, thimbleberry, yarrow; the lupine’s gone to seed.

Cow parsnip’s easy to find, but larkspur is harder.

Some summers, they see bears, or at least bear sign. Not so this summer, though.

“Maybe the construction has something to do with it.”

Construction or no, you can always spot a bear on Monday evenings at Kandahar Lodge. That’s when Tim Rubbert offers up a free slide show with fantastic grizzly photographs from his years in these mountains. It is, all agree, a fine way to end a day that began with a wildflower tour.

Rubbert is an energetic guide, taking listeners into Montana’s wilds, answering all manner of bearish questions and spinning yarns of his close encounters with the big bruins.

His show runs from 7:30 to 9 p.m., ending just in time for one last sunset stroll, fiery skies lighting the fireweed beneath.

“It’s a wonderful summer up here,” Bebbs said. “There’s so much to see and do.”