This Columbine is along the Dosewallips trail in the Olympic National Forest. You can see another patch just a little bit up the trail. (easier to see that one if you click on this image to increase the size)
Columbine
Trillium
Nothing says “Spring is Here” to me like seeing the trillium come up. These were growing along the Larry Scott Trail here in Port Townsend. (These are wild ones.) … and the dictionary says the plural is “Trilliums”. Which just sounds odd to me, but not as odd as Trillii.
Deer Park Wildflowers
We were hiking out the Slab Camp trail from Deer Park (after enjoying the view from the summit of Green Mountain) and saw these Olympic Harebell (top image). I had never seen (or at least noticed) them before. Very nice little flowers. In the same area, we saw these penstemon (below). While walking to the summit of Green Mountain, we saw the mountain blue bells (bottom).
Hurricane Ridge Flowers (2)
Another set of wildflower photos from my trip to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. I’m very fortunate to live just over an hour and a half from the summit … so it’s easy to access on short notice. The top photo is one of the more common wildflowers in the alpine areas of the ONP … paintbrush (often referred to as “Indian Paintbrush”). The second image is a patch of Vanilla Leaf that was along the trail. It’s common at all elevations, but this was a real nice patch and in full bloom. The third image shows one of the ‘vertical meadows’ along the trail … this one full of blooming American Bistort.
Hurricane Ridge Wildflowers
I recently did a day drive up to Hurricane Ridge In Olympic National Park. The road runs up into the alpine area, which makes it nice if you are carrying a bunch of camera equipment. The top photo is looking south into the center of the park and the Elwha River valley. The end of June is a good time for wild flowers, since most of the snow has left. I was able to find a trail where I was by myself and not packed in with all the other folks (they were mostly hiking trails near the main parking lot or Hurricane Hill).
The second image is Olympic Onion, which is described as being rare. I’ve seen it a few times and it smells strongly of onion. Since I’ve never seen it in huge masses, I’ve never harvested any for enhancing the flavor of my backpacking food. (although it sure would help)
Third image is larkspur … which competes with lupine in the blue/purple assemblage.
