Leaving the North Woods and its associated orchids behind, we got in the car and headed due west 1,000 miles to the Rocky Mts. Here we would spend the next nine days hiking and hunting orchids in various national and provincial parks. We ended up with a bonanza of 17 different orchid species; all but two in prime bloom! The blooming season in the Canadian Rockies was almost 3 weeks late this year due to record-breaking snowfall and a cool spring. In a normal year everything would have been pretty much past when we visited. Not in 2011. Lucky!

Glacier Nat'l Park was notable for its scenery, and some beautiful specimens of the orchid genera Corallorhiza and Platanthera were found.

Waterton was even better; thanks to directions provided by master native orchid photographer and researcher Lorne Heshka and a very friendly park ranger named Blandine, we were directed to an incredible roadside population of Cypripedium montanum (mountain lady's-slipper) within the park. I set my light diffusion tent up over the biggest clump and spent several hours photographing; any direction that I pointed the lens a picture seemed to be waiting to be taken! An unforgettable experience.

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