In July of 2014 we drove from our home in NYC to the glorious environs of the Rocky Mountains. It's always exciting to drive west along I 80 and witness the changing plant communities along the way. One of the highlights of the journey for us is when the 100th Meridian is passed in central Nebraska and the land begins to rise; suddenly the humidity is gone, the pinon/juniper zone has been entered and the traveler is then truly in the west!

Early July is a good time to visit the Rockies for wildflower viewing and we were not disappointed on this trip. Our first stop was at the spectacularly scenic Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. We have never visited the Tetons this early in July and were amazed at the display of prime-blooming coralroot orchids. Corallorhiza mertensiana (Merten's Coralroot) was the predominate species and no two plants were the same color, with an endless array of floral variation. Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis (Western Spotted Coralroot) was less frequent. We found an impressive group of seven plants that was truly a beautiful sight, sparkling like jewels in the sunlight. One golden- yellow individual (forma aurea) was found. The real find, however, was one - yes, just one! - Northwestern Twayblade (Neottia banksiana) that my eagle-eyed wife Jackie spotted growing along the trail. We searched and searched but could find no others. This species is at the southern end of its range in the Tetons. The sight of thousands of Sulfur Buckwheat plants (Eriogonum umbellatum) blooming with the spectacular Teton Range as a back drop was awesome.

Our next stop was the Bear River Range, 190 miles southwest near my hometown of Logan, Utah. I grew up hiking in these mountains and became fascinated with the local flora at an early age. We visited beautiful Tony Grove Lake, one of my favorite haunts and a floral paradise. It sits at 8,100 ft. in elevation and the sub-alpine flowers were prime. Six species of orchids are found at Tony Grove and three of them were in bloom when we visited. I even managed to locate Neottia (formerly Listera) borealis. This is the only known population in the area and was collected at Tony Grove Lake in 1941 by Dr. Arthur H. Holmgren, the noted western plant taxonomist who mentored me as a teenager. I was hoping to relocate the species (73 years later!) and after diligently searching the fen at the north end of the lake for several hours, I finally discovered 26 plants, including many seedlings, growing on a rotting log, well concealed in the undergrowth. Eureka! We also found two Corallohiza trifida (Early Coralroot) a species I had never seen in the Bear River Range. These two orchid species are much more common further north - in the southern Rockies they only occur infrequently at higher altitudes. It was overcast and windless on the day of our visit to Tony Grove Lake- making for perfect photographic conditions!

We then headed south to Capitol Reef National Park, situated high on the Colorado Plateau (elev. 6,000+ ft.) in central Utah. Most of the flowers were past bloom in the park at this time of year but it was still spring on the nearby Aquarius Plateau, which rises to 10,000 ft. in elevation. The Sego lilies (Calochortus nutallii) Utah's state flower, were blooming and I located a new (to me) population of the uncommon and recently named Intermountain Rein-Orchis (Platanthera tescamnis). As is the case with most western orchid species it is not showy and the thrill is mostly scientific...

It was then straight east to Moab, Utah and the incredible Red Rock Canyon Country that surrounds it, for our final three days in Utah. There is a site for Platanthera zothecina (Alcove Bog Orchid) along the nearby Colorado River that I monitor, as Moab is a place that we love to visit. This would be my fifth and earliest in the season visit and the bloom was the best I have ever seen, with over 100 plants in prime bloom. The Alcove Bog Orchid has been called "unattract