Chiwaukum Creek

On our way to eastern Washington we hiked (dwadled is more accurate) along part of the Chiwaukum Creek trail, which if followed far enough takes one into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.  We did not go nearly that far, but far enough to see the damage caused by the 2014 wildfires.  The Chiwaukum Complex fire burned nearly 14,000 acres in the area between mid-July and the end of August.  The area we hiked was already recovering and the wildflowers were in abundance.  We not only found the Western Fairy Slippers we were looking for but also found the first Lewisias of the season.  Know as Mountain Roses, Lewisia tweedyi grows only in the Wenatchee area of the Central Cascades.  There had been rain the night before so everything was bejeweled with water drops and we took a lot of pictures of those as well as of the wildflowers.

the trail and the creek

burned trees from the 2014 fires

raindrops

Spring Orange Peel Fungus

fungus on wild roses

Sword Fern

Arrowleaf Balsamroot

Upland Larkspur

Cliff Painbrush

Ballhead Waterleaf

Stony-ground Lupine

Mountain Rose (Lewisia tweedyi)

Naked Broomrape

Slender Woodland Star

 Large False Solomon's Seal

 Martindale's Desert Parsley

 Hooker's Fairy Bells

conifer

Martin Creek

(along the Old Cascade Highway)

 the Enchantments

Catherine Creek

After spending more than a day in Mount Hood National Forest we traveled across the Columbia River, back into Washington, to the Catherine Creek Natural area, one of our favorite places in spite of its heavy use.  We go there nearly every year, though at different times, to see the wildflowers and we were not disappointed this time.  We spent several hours there enjoy the views of the Columbia River with Mount Hood in the distance and photographed a seemingly endless array of wildflowers, the blue Camas and pink Sea Blush really putting on an especially good show.  Finished and tired we headed home through the Kittitas and Yakima Valleys with their views of Mount Adams and with Mount Rainier just visible to the north of Adams.

At Catherine Creek we walked a series of paved trails between the road and the Colombia River and did not venture down by the creek or up to the bluffs above the road and the river.  We found plenty to photograph lower down and were tired as well from the previous day's hiking.  One thing we noticed was that most of the Ponderosa Pines were dead or dying.  This is from an outbreak in the eastern Columbia River gorge of the California Fivespined Ips Bark Beetle.  This outbreak began in 2012 and hopefully is past its worst.  The wildflowers, however, made up for the sad condition of the Ponderosas and we had several wonderful hours there.

Common Camas

 Red-stem Storksbill

 White-top Clover

Giant Blue-eyed Mary

 Bugloss Fiddleneck

 Death Camas

 Prairie Star

 Sea Blush

 

 Small-flowered Lupine

 False Agoseris

 Early Saxifrage

Naked Broomrape

 Bi-colored Triteleia

Few-flowered Shooting Star

 Arrow-leaf Balsamroot

 Smooth Desert Parsley

Twelve-spotted Ladybug

Common Camas and Sea Blush

Mount Hood

 the Columbia River, the bluffs and the trails

 Oregon White Oak

Ponderosa Pine

 Western Serviceberry