Closeup of Wildflower and Dunes

It's very harsh and rugged there, isn't it ?
What are the flowers ?

Just a bunch of sand dunes. About 6000 ft elevation, these are just deposited here by a focused wind that pulles the sand off sandstone miles away. It has created a microclimate there that supports some rare life found only in this area.

very nice flowers

Sounds great GT

Lovely landscape.

I love those flowers...:>)

That's wonderful

Thank you for commenting. This show of this yellow flower was really breathtaking! They were so big and only on the dunes, nowhere else. Still can't find an identification resource. The bumble bees on them were almost 2 inches long! Huge! Not far off the beaten path, but uncluttered with visitors. Outside Kanab Utah.

I do know they are family asteraceae at least.

The deserts can be dramatically beautiful..my mother loved the desert but we never lived in one as my grand parents did...that was all the time I ever needed there..were the 2 week visits we did once a year!...lol..

I do love the desert. I'm from the high alpine semi-arid desert and the family is from the southwest desert borders. Here its an arctic desert! I've tried the near the forests near the oceans, not for me. :-)

The dry air is easier to live with ...the moist cool air we get here is the biggest downfall especially in winter..soaks through to your bones.

I've never liked a coastal winter.....brrrr. Even -30 isn't that cold feeling if you can believe it. :-)

Beautiful beautiful Flowers..my kind of scene ..great pic GT

I do believe it..I have been to Minot North Dakota in the dead of winter...oh my..it was amazing as cold as it was..how you only had to make sure to not run and take too deep of breaths...lol..big mistake..nothing like lungs on fire to make you remember not to do that again..lol.

I love this Pic GT :)

Good photo GT :o)

Thank you so much Deida, Jacque, and TT. What an overwhelming landscape. The sand was brilliant and these huge flowers mezmerizing. I knew it was a stop and look so I snapped lots of shots. About 500 miles from the closest ocean.

could it be a tithonia, Gt.... haven't read other comments yet... in the background there is a silvery gray plant...could it be sage brush?

There is definately sage brush in the picture. I looked up the mexican sunflower, and the plant itself is different. This has long herbatious stalks and leaves like the michaelmass daisy, that is why I'm classing it in the asteraceae family. I may have to wait until I am down in the area again, to find out.

I found this GT...Geraea canescens ..it is know as a desert funflower in the Mojave Desert...what do you think?
I do love this shot..so pretty..

Don dondondon DON! I have discovered the name. This is wyethia, mule-ear balsamroot, not an actual balsamroot in the balsamorhiza species but they do interbreed which is the thought for where the mules ear came from.

Thanks for the research and suggestions.

You know I kept thinking I had seen this flower..I am sure of having seen it in the Spokane area of Eastern Washington and Idaho....nice to know what it is named now!...

There is probably some there as well, in one of those two families. I saw balsamroot readily enough in Salmon Idaho where I come from.

Yes I have been through the Bitterroots there..lovely area..

It is lovely, just not much to do for yourself. :-) I loved getting to grow up there. Have you seen the bitteroot flower? That has got to be one of the most tender and lovely things I've ever witnessed. Only one have I seen. I'm guessing it is related to the pasque flower, but it is pale pink.

I do not believe I have GT..it sounds very lovely... :o)