Wildflower Wednesday Vignette - Elephant Heads

I'm rolling Wildflower Wednesday and Wednesday Vignette into one big ball today!

This is looking north at Long Prairie, on the south side of the Strawberrry Mountain Wilderness. It was SO quiet there, and we were the only people around except one guy who was mending fences a distance away. The meadows were full of flowers, and at the time, I mistakenly thought the beautiful swaths of purple you see here were a species of Blazing Star (Liatris sp.) I didn't get a closeup view, because they were back in the field and I wasn't dressed to go squelching through the wet meadow that day (I'll be better prepared next time!)

But I later learned that Liatris doesn't occur naturally in the west, so I spent some time trying to identify the flowers; I'm pretty sure they are Elephant Heads, Pedicularis groenlandica, so if you think I'm wrong, please let me know in a comment. Take a look at this detail photo of the individual flower I borrowed from Paul Slichter's highly useful site on NW hikes and wildflowers, to see the genesis of the common name.

Pink elephants, even!

Wednesday Vignette is hosted by Anna, at Flutter and Hum, and Wildflower Wednesday is hosted by Gail, at Clay and Limestone. Click on over to see what all the participants have going on for a Wednesday.