Unexpected Discoveries, Ten Minutes After The ZMM Narrator’s Twin Walls of Snow,
….Close Up: Rocks, with Lichens, and Last Summer’s Grass In the Highest Elevations of the ZMM Route. Of Course, There Are NO Trees!

….[ “There’s not a tree anywhere, only grass everywhere filled with little pink and blue and white dots of intense color.“]…. “ These [flowers] and grasses and mosses and lichens are all that can live here, now. We’ve reached the high country, above the timberline.“

Climbing Down Steep Slope On Hogback Formation, Beartooth Highway, WY. As mentioned in the 2nd previous photo:
..1) I just did not know where to look for wild flowers, or more likely, the flowers were there, I just did not see them!
..2) And: It was only by pure chance that I found the lichens in the above photo (as well as those flowers of previous two photos)!
….I found them ONLY because I had decided to climb down the grass covered slope to see the Marmot.

A Major Object Lesson Continued:
….To really see "what is there" on any trip, you must stop and get out of your car and go on short hikes. … Even if you don’t want to! … Even if you have no expectation of finding something … you must go explore!
….It is an important real fact => Some of my most enjoyable experiences were when I least expected them! Some of my best discoveries happened, and best photos found, when I was forced to stop, even when I did not want to!
….Or course, once stopped, you must get out of the car, and go for a long hike, like the Narrator.

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(Photo = 106-0634 ...... ZMM Page = 110 ...... WayPt = 136i3 …… Photo at WayPt = 145w)