If you're ever in the area, Esmerelda Basin would be the hike to do, I think. It's short - only about three miles - with plenty of scenery on its own, but it access plenty of other trails if you want a longer hike or a backpack. With the trailhead above 4,200 feet in elevation, it doesn't take all that much work to get to nice meadows and views, and the grade is relatively forgiving. I wouldn't visit it too late in the summer, though - the trail is hot in the sun and will not be as interesting when the flowers are gone.
The first image comes from a wildflower meadow just about a mile up the trail. The polarization of the sky is a bit awkward but I think I could work with it. Other than that, I like this image. I placed the tripod very low, which helps make the paintbrush flowers more prominent in the composition. I used f/18 to get the whole scene in focus.
The flower below is scarlet gilia, also known as skyrocket (Gilia aggregata). In the background, out of focus, is one of the mountains viewed from the upper part of the trial. I used f/13 to preserve some shape in that mountain. The sun was still pretty high when I took this one, but the lighting turned out surprisingly well.
Below is a view of the North Fork Teanaway itself. I think this composition lacks a sense of depth, but I like the lighting and color contrasts between the sunlit leaves and shaded creek. F/18 to get everything in focus and to get a shutter speed of 1/3 of a second, which blurred the water's motion a bit.
Below is a flower I found for the first time - I believe it is Columbia lewisia (Lewisia columbiana). They are rather small but quite pretty upon close examination. I used f/5.6 to get a bit more foreground in focus.
Below is some sort of stonecrop (genus Sedum). I did not take a close enough look at its leaves to make a more specific identification. Besides, there is quite the number of stonecrop species in the state. I opened up as wide as I could in this case, f/4.2, to blur the background as much as possible. I tried a variety of focus points and liked this one the best, because part of the petal is in focus as well as a couple of the anthers.
Below is a phlox, probably spreading phlox (Phlox diffusa). F/5.
Below are some shaded paintbrush flowers; the out-of-focus pink flowers are shooting stars. I used f/3.3 to blur the background as much as I could. This is another example of the shaded foreground/sunlit background idea that I've been periodically playing with recently.
I believe the flower below is a penstemon of some sort, probably woodland penstemon (Nothochelone nemorosa). I had the idea of setting the focus point deep inside the flower, and this was the result. I used f/3.8 to blur everything else and isolate the part of the flower that I had in focus.
Below is one whose identity I was having a tough time pinpointing, but I think it's either Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum) or trapper's tea (Ledum glandulosum). I even tried to include the leaves in the image - but these two species have very similar leaves and other features. I'll update this post if I figure it out.
Finally, another penstemon of one variety or another - as near as I can tell, Davidson's penstemon (Penstemon davidsonii). The waterway in the background is the North Fork Teanaway River. I used f/5, which blurred the background. I would have liked to try a narrow aperture to put everything in focus, but the flowers were wobbling in a slight breeze and a narrow aperture would have meant too long of a shutter speed, and the flowers would have blurred.
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