The Last Flower?

We hiked the Jamison Mine Trail up past Grass Lake on Sunday and got part way uup Mt. Washington.  A casual walk, over some pretty rocky terrain, we enjoyed walking through groves of huge confers and occasional meadows lined by smaller broadleaf trees.  I'll posting tree photos and notes shortly, but wanted to start by posting this photo of Paintbrush, the only flower we saw on the 6-mile venture.  I don't call it an adventure because we knew where we were going.  Backlit by a low sun, it literally glowed from a basically brown ground cover.  Many flowers of many different species will bloom here next spring, but for some reason on this day of cold wind and the ground covered with the yellow leaves of Cottonwood, Maple, Alder, and Willow, a single blooming flower gave me the feeling of a "last of its kind," like seeing the last Passenger Pigeon or the last Dodo.  A sad feeling, really, yet happy to see it.