Anderson Lake State Park

Anderson Lake State Park is on the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula.  We went there the week of April 5-11 as part of trip to Olympic National Park and because we had not been there for a number of years.  The lake itself doesn't amount to much though it is a popular fishing spot, but the trails around the lake are worth.  We went hoping to see a rare parasitic plant, the Vancouver Ground-cone, Boschniakia hookeri, a plant that parasitizes the roots of Salal.  We also hoped to see some Western Fairy Slippers, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis.  We found both, though the Ground-cones were not in flower yet and the Fairy Slippers were very few.  But, as always, we found other treasures to photograph and remember.

Anderson Lake

Vancouver Ground-cones

(the last photo is an older photo of the plant in flower)

 Panther Cap (Amanita pantherina)

 Fairy Fingers (Clavaria vermicularis)

White Slime Mold (unidentified)

Western Fairy Slipper

 Western Trillium (Trillium ovatum)

 Prairie Star (Lithophragma parviflorum)

 Raindrops on Grass

Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata)

 Common Horsetail (Equisetum arvense)

we sampled some of the young shoots and found them to be like celery

 Moss

 Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum)

 Termite Mound

 Pacific Banana Slug (Ariolimax columbianus)

Before leaving the Olympic Peninsula we also made a brief stop at Sequim Bay State Park near the town of Sequim and took a few more photos.  We were there for the Washington Native Orchid Society on their first outing of the year.  We visited one other location and found a few more Fairy Slippers and Western Spotted Coralroots, Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis, just starting to bloom.

Sequim Bay

Salmonberry Flower (Rubus spectabilis)

Unidentified Mushroom

Western Fairy Slipper

 Western Spotted Coralroot

Anderson Lake State Park

We have been members of the Washington Native Orchid Society for several years now and go on as many of their field trips as we possibly can.  The first outing of 2010 for the WNOS, an outing we did not miss, was to Anderson Lake State Park on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula.

The excursion was scheduled for Saturday, April 24th, and the day was bright and beautiful.  My wife and I, however, were up before daybreak and drove to Edmonds, north of Seattle, where we caught the Edmonds to Kingston ferry to the Olympic Peninsula.  We had planned on taking the Keystone to Port Townsend ferry but waited too long to make reservations.

The ferry ride was uneventful and after getting some breakfast in Kingston we headed on, stopping first in the historic town of Port Gamble for some photos.  Port Gamble is a small, unincorporated community on the northwestern shore of the Kitsap Peninsula.  It is a National Historic Landmark and a popular tourist destination and a very beautiful little town.

 

No one was about in the town except a maintenance worker and so we got our photos and went on, making a couple more stops along the road for some other pictures of an old barn and of the countryside.  The drive across the Kitsap Peninsula is a beautiful drive and so we did not hurry, but still arrived at Anderson Lake well ahead of the others.

Anderson Lake is a small lake used mostly for boating and fishing.  They had an algae problem there and so the lake had been closed for fishing for several years and had only just reopened.  Since it was the first day of fishing season the place was packed even at that early hour.  We decided that while waiting for the others we would do a little hiking on our own.

We followed one of the trails away from the lake and into the woods.  There we found Trilliums blooming and a lot of mushrooms and fungi as well.  It had been quite wet the weeks before and the mushrooms seemed to be everywhere.  We took plenty of pictures and wandered back to the lake and to the meeting spot just in time to catch the others.

The hike was around the lake and we made out way through a lot of mud and around a lot of fishermen to the south side of the lake where we found what we had come to see, the Western Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis.  For pictures and a description of the difference between the Eastern and Western Fairy Slippers see: http://nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/07/calypso-bulbosa.html

We did not find a lot of Slippers, only a few scattered here and there in the wooded hills on the south side of the lake.  What we did find that interested me even more than the slippers, was a saprophyte that grows only on the roots of Salal plants and that looks like yellow pinecones sticking up from the ground.  These are known as Vancouver Groundcones (Boschniakia hookeri).

We also found a few stems of a saprophytic orchid, the Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata.  For other pictures and a descriptiono f the different varieties of this orchid see: http://nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/08/spotted-coralroot-corallorhiza-maculata.html . The plants we saw were the typical brown-stemmed form.

On that same south side of the lake in open areas on the hills we found the Chocolate Lily, Fritillaria affinis growing in abundance, though the plants were nearing the end of the their flowering cycle.  Finishing our hike around the lake we headed for the car and the long ferry ride and drive home.  All in all, a very worthwhile trip and one we hope to make again.