38 IDAHO FALLS MAGAZINE APRIL 2019
May Flowers
Catching color between raindrops
BY KRIS MILLGATE
Stop before the receding snowline, usu-
ally somewhere in the lower end of the
caldera near Harriman State Park. Or take
that dirt road after cresting Ashton Hill. You
know the road. If not, choose one. They'll
all be livening up. Pick a pullout, park your
car, grab the picnic and plot your course.
Make sure you wander far enough from
the road to let natural sounds swallow traf-
fic noise. Open your ears as you go. Buzzing
bugs in flight, melting snow in trickle,
spring birds in song, maybe a slight breeze
rocking lodgepole pine in soft sway.
Absorb the sounds then look down. Step
lightly through Mother Nature's doing.
The meadow you last saw as fall's brown
and crunchy character is reviving as moist,
meadow green. There are flecks of color,
like paintbrush bristles flicked by hand,
across a canvas.
Stop here to frolic in shin-high flowers
of wild variety. Pale geranium, sun-blazing
balsam root, popping-purple lupine, purest-
white parsnip and hot pink fireweed with
buds climbing from the bottom up. The
bottom shows now. The up won't open
until summer's end, but that's at least three
months away.
Kick off your shoes and open that picnic
basket. Lunch on a log in a meadow. There's
no better way to start our short season of
no coats.
You haven't seen this meadow
in seven months. A white blanket buried
it shortly after Labor Day. Now, Memorial
Day is coming and so are the blooms.
Snow is melting and seeds are sprouting
in Island Park. Load a picnic in the car and
head north.
KRIS MILLGATE PHOTOS
IF
