Natural History Wanderings

Washington Trails Association has several new wildflower reports:

Harstine Island State Park April 22 Olympics – Kitisap Peninsula
Saw trillium, miner’s lettuce(I’m guessing), and a couple other unidentified wildflowers

Paradise Valley Conservation Area — Apr 22, 2013 — Puget Sound and Islands — North Sound
There were a few species of wildflower blooming.

Nason Ridge — Apr 22, 2013 — Central Cascades — Stevens Pass – East
The only flowers blooming were Indian Paintbrush. I was surprised not to see more.

Icicle Ridge — Apr 21, 2013 — Central Cascades — Leavenworth Area
the balsam root had yet to bloom

Hamilton Mountain — Apr 21, 2013 — South Cascades — Columbia Gorge
The trees are just starting to leaf out, with the virginal leaves matching the neon green moss on the rocks. There was a smattering of wildflowers signaling spring. We saw yellow violets, bleeding hearts and Oregon grapes blooming along the trail. There was also the occasional trillium, wild strawberry, and salmonberry.

Patterson Mountain — Apr 21, 2013 — North Cascades — East Slope
Color Show: Upon arrival, we looked up at the hillside and thought “looks kind of drab today.” We were hoping to see the slopes bursting with golden balsamroot, but it must be too early because I only found one with half decent blooms. There were plenty of lupin bushes also, but it will be several days or maybe weeks till they bloom. However, in spite of the lack of flowers at the beginning we continued up the trail, taking the right fork first. To our delight, we found a carpet of blue, purple, white, and yellow flowers covering the upper slopes. Normally it doesn’t take us 3 hours to hike 4 miles, but toting a camera and wanting to capture each dainty little bloom seemed to slow us down considerably. The west side slopes had mostly purple and yellow flowers (see photos; I’m unsure of their name) and the east side was dominated with a ground cover of white flowers and scattered purple shootingstars. While on the east side admiring the purple shootingstars, we were surprised to find a white shootingstar also; never seen one of them before.

Sauer Mountain — Apr 21, 2013 — Central Cascades — Stevens Pass – East
On the west side of the mountains I have seen some blooming trillium, violets, and skunk cabbage this spring. On the east side the real spring wildflower show is underway…. Lots of balsamroot in bloom from the start. The blue sky and flowers made the long drive well worthwhile.
The balsamroot was at or just past peak near the start. It is going strong higher up. The trail is very narrow and the hillside quite steep so getting around other hikers takes a little care. The trail itself climbs at a steady grade. There was a little lupine in bloom but the vast majority is still a week or two away. Lots of small flowers whose names I could not recall. There were a lot of bluebells and some yellow bells higher up. The phlox had very large flowers.

 

see all their reports at: Trip Reports — Washington Trails Association.