A brown butterfly with lots of white and orange spots on its wings rests on a bed of dry vegetation.

While I was at #ZumwaltPrairie, I added my 5000th observation to iNaturalist! This is an Edith's #checkerspot #butterfly (Euphydryas editha), a native North American species widespread west of the Great Plains. #butterflies #Lepidoptera #insects #animals #wildlife #prairie #grasslands #nature

A photo of a wide, grassy plain dotted with colorful wildflowers, with a low hill rising in the background, and a blue sky with white clouds overhead.

I did, in fact, make it to (and back home from) #ZumwaltPrairie this week! I'm scrambling to get caught up on work and other obligations today, but please enjoy this photo of the #prairie with one of the cinder cone buttes in the background. #grasslands #Oregon #PNW #nature #NaturePhotography

A photo from a grassy ridge looking out over a wide plain of fields dotted with houses, and a ridge of snow-capped mountains and trees in the background, under a wide blue sky.

I'm in the #BlueMountains of Northeast #Oregon for a few days. Here's my view yesterday evening from the ridge at the #NezPerce Wallowa Homeland in #Wallowa, OR. Today I'm going to the #ZumwaltPrairie to see what the Wallowa Valley looked like prior to colonization. #PNW #hiking #outdoors