If you want to view wildlife, go to Yellowstone National Park. But, if you're after Rocky Mountain wildflowers, it's hard to beat Montana's Glacier National Park.

For most people, identifying wildflowers is not an easy thing. A good guide book can help make any nature experience more enjoyable for everyone. Finding a guide book that is thorough, yet easy to use, is the hard part.

Shannon Fitzpatrick Kimball and Peter Lesica have recently published "Wildflowers of Glacier National Park."

"I thought there was a need out there for a book that was easier to use," Fitzpatrick Kimball said.

Fitzpatrick Kimball said she has been exploring Glacier National Park with her family since she was a child. Her interest in flowers and other things green eventually led her to earn an M.S. in botany.

"I was working in the field until the birth of my daughter," she said. "After that, much of my time was spent at home. It seemed like a good opportunity to write the book."

Fitzpatrick Kimball sought out botanist Peter Lesica. Lesica has been a botanist in Montana for 25 years and his interest in wildflowers also led him to Glacier National Park in 1972.

"It was the first place I went hiking when I moved here from Wisconsin," Lesica said. "Needless to say, it impressed the hell out of me. I went to work in Glacier's herbarium in 1984. I was surprised by the number of misidentifications of plants species there."

Lesica's work at Glacier's herbarium inspired him to write a technical manual, "Flora of Glacier National Park," that was published by Oregon State University Press in 2002.

"Shannon said she wanted to write a book for a lay audience and I agreed," he said. "What she basically did was to write the book using the technical data from my book."

One of the most appealing features of Fitzpatrick Kimball's and Lesica's book is how easy it is to use. Most people see a wildflower and usually mentally categorize the specimen as a "pretty blue" or "bright yellow." Well, that's how Fitzpatrick Kimball organized her book.

If you see a wildflower with blue petals you simply go to the blue flowers chapter and look it up. That leads to another outstanding feature of the book, Lesica's photos.

"A lot of identification books have pretty pictures in them," he said. "These photos weren't meant for a coffee table book. I tried to select photos that showed the flowers as accurately as possible to what you would actually see in the field."

For many species, such as wild raspberry, Lesica has two photos. One photo shows the raspberry with fruit. The other photo shows the raspberry as you would view it most of the year, sans fruit.

An added bonus in the book is sections on common trees in Glacier and some of Glacier's special residents, ferns.

"I included those sections because for me, the most useful guide books have always been the ones that include everything," she said. "I even consider putting identifications for lichens in the book. Maybe that'll be in the second edition."

Fitzpatrick Kimball published the book herself under the name Trillium Press. Riverbend Press is helping to promote the book. A paperback copy of "Wildflowers of Glacier National Park" can be purchased for $19.95.

"This was my first try at publishing but I don't think it will be the last," she said. "I'm considering writing a children's book next."