People around Sun Valley this week are rich beyond measure.
People who made the effort—and handed over the cash to the oil companies—to visit this week will be amply rewarded for their presence here.
This has nothing to do with the size of their bank accounts.
They are being rewarded with the stunning visual show of Mother Nature's fireworks—wildflowers that are the result of an ample winter and a cool, wet spring.
They blanket our hillsides and are the talk of the town. Many longtime residents say it's the best wildflower season they've ever seen.
Some flowers are the redemptive coda of the tumultuous wildfire symphony that began with drought and crescendoed in flame.
Scientists say that some of the remarkable stands of flowers and grasses are the result of heavy nitrogen releases from plants burned by the Castle Rock Fire.
Through June, arrowleaf balsamroot swaddled hillsides in a yellow melody. This week, lupine, asters, penstemon, sticky geraniums, Indian paintbrush, sugar bowls, leopard lilies—the list is huge—are lilting grace notes.
Green grasses have nearly erased the fire's mark on blackened sage hillsides. Scorched forested hillsides will bear their scars for decades to come.
Yet, the sun now shines where sun has not shown for decades and new plant life is sprouting in soft shades of green.
The fine show around us should be cause for celebration. And in the visible renewal of things destroyed, let us find hope and optimism in the future.
