Manning Park - An Explosion of Alpine Diversity

Photos from a wonderful day trip in British Columbia's E.C. Manning Provincial Park! The reason for the visit was the sub alpine meadows that are usually in full bloom in mid-July, and I can gladly report, they were.
In sub alpine plant communities, the plants are known as 'survivors'. They often grow low like a mat to maximize photosynthetic activity in the short summer and to stay low in windy areas. These plants do not grow large like those on the coast as resources and water are in shorter supply. Essentially, they are surviving, growing slowly but surely in hostile terrain. Because of this, all the plants here are on the same playing field and there is not one plant that dominates, allowing for incredible floral diversity. In a square meter, up to four plants can be found growing. The most common plants on a short sub alpine hike we took were; tufted saxifrage, western pasque flowers with their Dr. Seuss looking seed heads, alpine pussytoe, alpine aster, alpine arnica, arctic lupine, slender cinquefoil, partridge foot, common red paintbrush, and spreading phlox. That's a lot of plants for a few kilometres! There were also stunning views of surrounding peaks. On the drive up to the sub alpine, many specially adapted plants grew on the rocky slopes of the mountain at the Cascade Lookout. These included coast penstemon and sulphur buckwheat. Along side the road, Columbia lilies, yarrow, scarlet gilia, and lupine also grew prolifically out of the rock.
I also spotted a Clark's Nutcracker, the 253rd bird on my life list! These birds, related to jays and crows, live in high elevations where they feed on the seeds of whitebark pine. It is with the whitebark pine that the nutcracker has developed a symbiotic relationship. Nutcrackers will cache (store for later) tens of thousands of white bark pine seeds each year. The seeds that aren't eaten are dispersed, growing new pines. Nutcrackers can remember the location of thousands of different cache sites, making it a a remarkable bird!
One day in nature provided lots of beautiful sights!