Sunflower Hill

The steep slopes and flat benches of Sunflower Hill are a legacy of ancient glaciers and the lakes and rivers they helped form. From the top of the hill, views up the St. Mary's Valley and out into the Rocky Mountain Trench make the twenty minute climb worthwhile. Red tailed hawks are often seeing soaring in the updrafts, and signs of elk and mule deer are everywhere.

Sunflower Hill lies at the south end of the Nature Park along the St. Mary's Lake road. Its low elevation and southern exposure allow a ponderosa pine/bunchgrass ecosystem to flourish. The slopes of Sunflower Hill, along with the dense forest on the flat above, provide ideal winter range for ungulates such as mule deer and elk.

(Thanks to Karen Paynter for these photos.)

Sunflower Hill is named for the profusion of yellow Balsam Root flowers that cover its slopes in April of each year. Other flowers common to the area include larkspur, mertensia, mariposa lily, and buttercups while shrubs like ceanothus and saskatoon provide important forage for the browsing elk and mule deer. Here is the same slope several weeks later in the season. The balsam root has finished flowering and the larkspur is now in bloom.

 


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