WHAT HAPPENED TO APRIL & MAY?

21 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Birding, Camping, Nature, Spring, Wildflowers

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basalt, central Washington, Crab Creek, Goose Lake, Potholes, Sandhill Cranes, wildflowers

APRIL ARRIVED AND THEN IT DEPARTED. AND THEN MAY CAME ALONG. And now it’s June! We managed to get to central Washington and the Potholes/Columbia NWR/Seep Lakes area the first part of April to see the last of the Sandhill Cranes before they flew to parts north. And boy did we see them!

Sandhills on a dike at the edge of Crab Creek

I don’ have a telephoto lens that is large enough to get in really close, but you can see the numbers. Just multiply by ten and you get the idea. They were spread out over a very large area. We figured there were 2,000-3,000 birds.

300 maybe? Multiply by 10.

The central part of Washington is so different from the west side of the Cascade mountains. It is considered Shrub Steppe. Towering basalt cliffs and potholes scoured out by the Great Missoula flood of the last ice age.It is an arid, desert like environment with cactus and cattails alike.

Crab Creek basalt cliffs

There is a lot of agriculture in this area too; a benefit of the federal government’s reclamation project in the wake of building the Grand Coulee Dam. There are acres upon acres of potatoes, wheat, corn, alfalfa, apples, cherries and vineyards for winemaking. All of this intermingled with bird habitat. It is a real jewel.

Lower Goose Lake

This is a great migratory stopover for the Sandhill Cranes as well as many varieties of waterfowl and songbirds.

Wildflowers like this Fritallaria pudica ,were just beginning to bloom

Beaver lodge at Lower Crab Creek

It is a great area to hike, camp and watch wildlife. And this trip was a nice four day break from a renovation project that began last month.

Zigadenus; also known as Death Camas. It’s quite .lovely

PART TWO: A LUCKY WEATHER WINDOW AT RED ROCK CANYON

26 Saturday Feb 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in Desert, Serendipity, Travel, Wildflowers

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desert, serendipity, Travel, wildflowers

Sunrise reflecting on canyon walls in the campgroud.

HAPPENSTANCE AND SPONTANEITY ARE WONDERFUL TRAVEL COMPANIONS. It was nothing more than happenstance that we found Red Rock Canyon State Park (check the video with the link) in California on our way to Death Valley last year, so having no formal plans or time frame, we stopped for a few days before going on to Death Valley. Again this year we had warm, clear weather during the day (and 30’s overnight) and on a Wednesday, only two other campsites were occupied. As it turns out, the warm weather we experienced both trips was an anomaly. Normal temperature range for this time of year according to the park ranger, is usually is high of around 40° and low 15°! But luck was with us so we had two good days for hiking in the park.

This year we hiked over the ridge at the south end of the C.G. and west up the main wash behind the campground to its end (the cliffs just right of center in the photo above) in a box canyon. As we began our walk at the bottom of the wash we were treated to rivulets of running water that fell over a series of small falls before falling a hundred feet to a larger wash below.

Lots of colorful, sandy, eroded cliffs line the wash to the north and south. I named this area the toadstools for the way the rock has eroded. The ‘toadstools’ are more than ten feet tall.

The end of the wash or is it the beginning?

As we wandered back down the wash we did some detouring to see if we could find another way back to the campground and up and over some of the ridges. As we climbed up one small rise, Tom spotted a piece of paper rolled up and tied with ribbon snagged in a shrub. At the other end of the ribbon was torn and deflated balloon from a Red Robin restaurant (who knows where). We unrolled it to see the note:

Could it have been written around Christmas time? Sweet. Too bad Gian Marco did not include his address; we could have written to tell him where we found it. Kind of like a message in a bottle.

There were several tiny plants in bloom along the wash edges. This one I think, is mohave brevifolia, the flowers no more than three-sixteenths of an inch across.

A view to the northeast, the big wash below (where the water was headed) and amazing color and variation in the landscape beyond. Next trip we’ll hike this area. There is no end of opportunity for hiking and exploring here and this is one reason we are drawn to Red Rock Canyon. If our luck holds, next year we’ll encounter good weather too.

EXPLORING NW MONTANA & GLACIER NP – PART ONE

16 Thursday Sep 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in Montana, National Parks, Travel, Wildflowers

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OUR FIRST NIGHT IN MONTANA was spent along the Kootenai River at the USFS Yak Campground. There is a campground on each side of the Yaak where it meets the Kootenai. We left Seattle at 10:00 a.m. on 8/16 and arrived at our campground at 6:15 p.m. (MDT). Just before arriving at this CG we were looking for another one that showed on our map but all we could find at this location was a group of turkeys!

Since this blog is ostensibly about botanical things, I spotted this perfect seedhead (tragopogon lamottei?),–not yet identified with certainty– a globe of fairies waiting to lift off.

A Sunny little patch of gallardia pinnifolia (I think) along the riverbank.

Day two,east toward Libby, MT and a stop at Kootenai Falls, a majestic drop of waterfalls along the Kootenai River. Unlike any other waterfalls we’ve seen in our travels. To get a sense of the power and breadth I’m including the following series of photographs.We had the place to ourselves this time for about an hour. The rush of water through here is incredible!

The ‘top end’ of the falls

The ‘bottom end’ as the river flows northeast on its way to Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. It is a fabulous stop that we could never tire of seeing.

On day three we made the west entrance to Glacier NP and by 1:00 p.m. we were at Bowman Lake CG, thirty miles north of the west entrance. A beautiful six mile long mountain lake between Numa and Cerulean ridges and six mountain peaks that overlook the lake. This beautifully located campground was never full in the four nights we stayed. The lake was the perfect spot to camp for several days and try out our inflatable tandem kayak and take some short hikes.

Beautiful Bowman Lake.

The best way to collect rocks in a national park–photographs! A lot of red rock here and in Lake McDonald at the west entrance.

On a hike along the lake we spotted the following butterflies, beetles, assorted wildflowers, and plants.

A Blue Copper butterfly.

Coronis frittilary, I think.

And a Green Comma. A good site for identification of things living is DiscoverLife.

This is spirea pyrimidata with a checkered beetle and a mating pair flower longhorn beetles. Many thanks to the Bugman at Whats’sThatBug for helping me to identify the beetles! (See link at right)

There was so much to see here and great opportunities for seeing what is still wild and untrammeled. So let’s break here before continuing on to the Going-to-the-Sun-Road and parts east and south and another slew of photos to scroll through.