Utah high altitude sightings

7.29.12    A few days ago, I  had the great good fortune to visit Albion Basin at the Alta ski area near Salt Lake City.  The altitude we trekked around in was between 9,000 and 9,800 feet; scraps of last winter's rather meager snow still remained in protected areas.  An abundance of wildflowers were in bloom in the mountain meadows, watered by icy seeps and small streams.  Species of these alpine flowers I found particularly interesting were Elephanthead lousewort; Green Gentian (also known as Monument Plant for its 4-5foot towering mass of bloom); and Purple Monkeyflower (aka Lewis Monkeyflower, named for Meriweather Lewis who discovered the plant growing near Glacier National Park.   Moose find the meadows a good source of browse, and the cold streams provide plenty of water to drink; the bull moose we saw was feeding on fireweed; we also spotted a cow moose a couple hours later.