5-30-10
Janet had double
knee replacement surgery several months ago. She wanted to find a short
easy hike with minimal elevation gain. We both wanted to get out of the
rain for a day. I have only had one flower hike this spring. After
3300' of gain the day before an easy trip with photo opportunities
sounded great to me. We met in Bellevue at the not so early hour of
8:00 am and headed east. We had a few ideas but no definite itinerary.
After a stop in Cle Elum we decided to continue farther east to Whiskey
Dick Mountain. Last year was my first visit and Janet was on that trip
too. We found many flowers including cacti in full bloom. This visit
was much later in the spring but we hoped for the best.
Overnight the forecast for sunshine turned to mostly cloudy and that's what we had. Still, it was much nicer than the 5 hours of rain I hiked in the day before. Last year I drove and the dirt access road onto Whiskey Dick Mountain was lousy. Not knowing if it became even worse we parked and hiked cross country to the ridge top. We came down the road and it was not bad after the tough spot. This time Janet drove and we make it up to the first ridge top.
It was windy up there. We hiked east on an old road. Quickly we came to flowering bitterroot. Lots of bitterroot. Many hundreds of bitterroot. It is one of my favorite wildflowers and this was as profuse as I have seen them. Other flowers were blooming too. The only problem was the wind. It never let up making it hard to get a photo that was not blurry. Sagebrush made for a wind screen for some shots. We hiked about a half mile out and then back. It was still before noon so we had lunch and headed on to our next destination.
I have known about the Reecer Creek Road which heads north from Ellensburg into the mountains. We could see that the south slope was snow free. We hoped that we could get high enough to find more early wildflowers in bloom. It was time to explore a new area. We took Highway 10 through Ellensburg and headed north on Reecer Creek Road. We cruised across the valley finding balsamroot, lupine and irises in meadows along the road. Irises? Yep, lots of them.
The road narrow to one lane and began to climb. It remained paved as far as we drove. There are pull outs every few hundred feet for passing and for stopping and photographing. Lots of birds along the way. Janet was able to pick out several Western Tanagers with bright red and yellow colors. When the climbing starts it gains elevation fast. The higher we climbed the farther back in time we went. It was late spring according to the flowers at Whiskey Dick. We traveled to early spring by the time we hit snow.
It was 2600' at Ellensburg and we made it to 5400' before snow covered the road. At the high point we stopped at a meadow covered with purple satin flowers. There were glacier lilies, spring beauty, and yellow bells too. On the way down we stopped to see Indian paintbrush, big head clover, desert parsley, waterleaf, bluebells, phlox, death camas, and more. We hit the jackpot. Didn't have to walk more than a few dozen yards from the road to get all the wildflowers we wanted. Much better than I was expecting.
For the day we had quite a variety of wildflowers From bitterroot down low to glacier lilies and snow up high. We managed to cram the whole spring into one day. On the drive home we found rain as we crossed back to the west side of the mountains. Our warm overcast day proved to be much better than another rainy day on the west side. Janet's knees did well and I had a nice relaxing day enjoying more wildflowers than I had seen all year.
Janet's report & photos are here: Nwhikers Report
Click on thumbnails to get larger pictures.
Trips - 2010
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Overnight the forecast for sunshine turned to mostly cloudy and that's what we had. Still, it was much nicer than the 5 hours of rain I hiked in the day before. Last year I drove and the dirt access road onto Whiskey Dick Mountain was lousy. Not knowing if it became even worse we parked and hiked cross country to the ridge top. We came down the road and it was not bad after the tough spot. This time Janet drove and we make it up to the first ridge top.
It was windy up there. We hiked east on an old road. Quickly we came to flowering bitterroot. Lots of bitterroot. Many hundreds of bitterroot. It is one of my favorite wildflowers and this was as profuse as I have seen them. Other flowers were blooming too. The only problem was the wind. It never let up making it hard to get a photo that was not blurry. Sagebrush made for a wind screen for some shots. We hiked about a half mile out and then back. It was still before noon so we had lunch and headed on to our next destination.
I have known about the Reecer Creek Road which heads north from Ellensburg into the mountains. We could see that the south slope was snow free. We hoped that we could get high enough to find more early wildflowers in bloom. It was time to explore a new area. We took Highway 10 through Ellensburg and headed north on Reecer Creek Road. We cruised across the valley finding balsamroot, lupine and irises in meadows along the road. Irises? Yep, lots of them.
The road narrow to one lane and began to climb. It remained paved as far as we drove. There are pull outs every few hundred feet for passing and for stopping and photographing. Lots of birds along the way. Janet was able to pick out several Western Tanagers with bright red and yellow colors. When the climbing starts it gains elevation fast. The higher we climbed the farther back in time we went. It was late spring according to the flowers at Whiskey Dick. We traveled to early spring by the time we hit snow.
It was 2600' at Ellensburg and we made it to 5400' before snow covered the road. At the high point we stopped at a meadow covered with purple satin flowers. There were glacier lilies, spring beauty, and yellow bells too. On the way down we stopped to see Indian paintbrush, big head clover, desert parsley, waterleaf, bluebells, phlox, death camas, and more. We hit the jackpot. Didn't have to walk more than a few dozen yards from the road to get all the wildflowers we wanted. Much better than I was expecting.
For the day we had quite a variety of wildflowers From bitterroot down low to glacier lilies and snow up high. We managed to cram the whole spring into one day. On the drive home we found rain as we crossed back to the west side of the mountains. Our warm overcast day proved to be much better than another rainy day on the west side. Janet's knees did well and I had a nice relaxing day enjoying more wildflowers than I had seen all year.
Janet's report & photos are here: Nwhikers Report
 Whiskey Dick Windmills |
 First Lupine |
 Yellow Flowers |
 Tiny Flowers |
 First Bitterroot |
 Pale Bitterroot |
 Deep Color |
 Indian Paintbrush |
 Yellow Clump |
 Red & Yellow |
 Many Bitterroot Pods |
 Great Color |
 Littered With Bitterroot |
 Irises |
 Balsamroot |
 Satin Flower |
 Darker Satin Flowers |
 Spring Beauty |
 Satin Flower Meadow |
 Yellow Bell |
 Flower Circle |
 Glacier Lilies |
 Indian Paintbrush |
 Janet At Work |
 Woodland Stars |
 Many Small Flowers |
 Big Head Clover |
 Phlox |
 Lupine |
 Winding Road |
 Sage & Lupine |
 Balsamroot Flower |
 Iris Close Up |
 Last Lupine |
 Sage, Balsamroot, Lupine |
Trips - 2010
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