Taproots gradually ramified distally. Stems erect, 0.5-5 cm. Leaves: basal leaves withering at or soon after anthesis, ± sessile or abruptly or gradually narrowed into broad petiole, blade spatulate to orbiculate, flattened, 1-6.5(-9) cm, margins entire, apex obtuse, truncate, or retuse; cauline leaves absent. Inflorescences with flowers borne singly on peduncles; bracts 2, ovate to oblong, 5-12 mm, margins glandular-toothed, apex acute. Flowers sessile, not disarticulate in fruit; sepals 2, decussate with bracts, resembling 4-merous calyx, ovate-lanceolate to oblanceolate, 5-12 mm, herbaceous, margins irregularly toothed, sometimes glandular, apex acute; petals (5-)6-9(-12), white, obovate to oblanceolate, 10-15 mm; stamens 8-15(-26); stigmas 3-5. Capsules 8 mm. Seeds 12-15, 2 mm, minutely tuberculate. Flowering late spring-early summer. Sandy or gravelly, usually granitic or volcanic substrates, near melting snow; 1300-2400 m; Calif., Idaho. Lewisia kelloggii is known only from the central Sierra Nevada, California, and a disjunct population in the Sawtooth Range, Idaho.