A Gorgeous Afternoon in the Iowa Mountains

Good morning! Last Saturday was gorgeous, so we headed over to the Iowa Mountains for a leisurely stroll through the woods and rolling hills. Since we weren't going to embark on any major hiking, I brought along my Nikon to snap some pictures. It sure was beautiful out there!

A view to the east through the trees while standing on a ridge. The trees are almost completely grown in, and everything that is grown in is vibrant and verdant.

Another view on the next ridge.

The wildflowers are out in full force, and we were treated to a nice rainbow of them along the trail. I admit that I'm not good with plants, but I did some google searching to find out what these different wildflowers are. From what I gather, these are prairie phlox.

I believe these are also phlox, but of the yellow variety.

These light blue flowers with yellow centers took a little bit more investigative work, but I'm pretty sure they are narrowleaf blue-eyed grass.

A shot of nature girl walking along the ridgeline trail.

At the end of our time in the woods, I gave Nature Girl my camera and let her take some pictures. I really liked a couple of them, so I'm posting my two favorites. Her first one, I call "Mismatched Socks."

Another of NG's photos: "The Bird Station."

I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into a beautiful afternoon we had. We followed it up by stopping by a winery between the forest and our house where I have a frequent buyers card. I had a full card which meant I had a free bottle of wine, so we took that home and spent the rest of the evening sitting outside. We gathered some firewood as well, so when the sun went down we enjoyed a bonfire.

If you know better information on my wildflowers, I'd love for you to share! Just leave me a comment below.