Day 2 of our side trip from the Black Hills. We're covering a lot of ground. After a nice evening in Kallispell, Montana, we headed south toward Idaho. The scenery got a lot drier as soon as we entered Idaho. We had a nice drive to Salmon where we had lunch, and enjoyed the travel through the Canyon between Salmon and Challis. The juxtaposition between a cool clear river and dry stony canyon walls creates a lot of microhabitats and interesting landscapes.
Although the canyon walls appear barren, there are lots of cool plants, and one of the most showy was a penstemon that might be firecracker penstemon, Penstemon eatonii. But I'm not entirely sure that this is really a firecracker penstemon. Reliable atlases of flora don't show this plant ranging into Lemhi County, Idaho, but it seems to match Penstemon eatonii. The leaves are amazingly succulent. If I was in collecting mode, I'd make it a point to go back and get some seed. These might provide a hummingbird plant for green roofs, since they seem to grow in rocks and gravel with little soil.
