Looking south from Healey Pass, the skyline is dominated by The Monarch and her ramparts. If you look very closely, you can even see the smallest part of Mount Assiniboine (it peeks out over [what I think is] Mt. Nestor).
These meadows are the most glorious I’ve even experienced. And even though it was relatively late in the season, a late and very wet spring combined to give us a prime time viewing.
My two favourite flowers, in abundance; Indian Paintbrush, with the most elegant of botanical names – Castilleja miniata, and the Anemone flower [Anemone occidentalis], which later in the season looks like a soggy mouse on a stick. But also heathers, saxifrages, and moss campion. Alpines that I learned to identify and love from my time in the Northwest Territories, where similar biomes exist 1500 meters lower in elevation.
This photo was taken about 4 hours into a five day trek through to Vista Lake, via Egypt, Haiduk, Shadow, and Twin Lakes. 44 km in total, with some very significant elevation gain. This was simply the first of many dozens of hard won views that would make the climbing worthwhile.