Various colors of Indian paintbrush bloom in Red Canyon. (Rose Vowles)

A host of wildflowers bloom and fade across Wyoming each year, signaling the seasonal march from spring through summer to fall. From shooting stars to silky phacelia, the state’s wildflowers attract invertebrates, feed birds and blanket the landscape in beauty. 

An anise swallowtail alights on locoweed near Meeteetse. (Peter G. Arnold)

Early blooms like the pale purple pasque flower and sunny arrowleaf balsamroot have come and gone in many places, making way for later season varieties like paintbrush and asters. 

Funnily named flowers such as phlox and silky phacelia also festoon the high-country late into the summer. 

A little hiker runs through a patch of arrowleaf balsamroot in the Shoshone National Forest. (Katie Klingsporn/WyoFile)

Do you have a striking photo of summer in Wyoming? Submit high-resolution entries to WyoFile’s Summer Snap Challenge by emailing them to editor@wyofile.com under the subject line “Summer photos.” Be sure to tell us when and where the images were taken. We’ll gather the images and publish our favorites through the summer.

Katie Klingsporn reports on outdoor recreation, public lands, education and general news for WyoFile. She’s been a journalist and editor covering the American West for 20 years. Her freelance work has...

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