6/28, Saturday. I signed up this WNPS field trip.
4 of us from Seattle, 1 from Bellevue who met us at the TH. One of us is 78 year old!
She's in great shape, looks a lot younger.
All of them are more knowledgeable than me. I learned a lot, also confirmed some flowers that I guessed 2 weeks ago on Earl Peak.
We started from the same Beverley Turnpike TH, wooded habitat.
After ~0.5 mile, at the first junction, turn left following Beverley Creek.
Some of us were delighted to see quite many white flowering rhododendrons.
Another half a mile later, we enter a meadow filled with scarlet gilia and buckwheat.
I've never seen this much scarlet gilia before.
We spent quite some time in this area.
Some rare plants that are only found in the serpertine soil:
Wenatchee paintbrush,
Thompson's pincushion,
lace fern and Shasta fern.
The trail goes through the meadow, steadily gaining elevation, away from the creek.
More and more rocky, until going through a large scree field.
The scree is not barren. A lot of Shasta fern.
Richard, the hiker leader, scrambled up, looking for alpine collomia.
We all started searching. I was the lucky one who spotted the lone plant.
Another trail junction. We turned left, crossed the thin creek again. More trees here. There's a camp site next to the water, where we made a snack break. The next 0.7 miles has many shooting stars, some bog orchid, some columbine (in different shades of red), some white rhodies.
The next trail junction, we took the left fork towards Eldorado Pass.
Now dry and rocky.
Wenatchee Lomatium,
Shasta Buckwheat (new to me),
bright rock penstemon, lupines of various shades (from yellow to scarlet), Anemone drummondi, phlox.
The view is getting better as we approach the pass.
Stuart is looming in front.
Rocks here are yellow and red.
From here, turn south along a gentle ridge to the Iron Peak. 0.7 miles.
Sand and rocks, reddish brown. May have iron.
One of the highlights here is alpine Claytonia on the highest ridge.
There are also a few Whitney's milk vetch, still in flower.
Lots of white daisy, buckwheat, Thompson's Cryptantha (endemic). Lady bugs.
We walked down together happily. Didn't find another collombia on the way back, nor the one we saw earlier.
I was dropped off in downtown.
