Kaleberg Archive for Keyword: flowers, Page: 2

08/22/10 - Late Summer - Already - at Hurricane Hill It's late summer in the high country. The corn lilies are out on Hurricane Hill, and the fields are colored by the myriad harebells. The snow has all melted on the north slope leaving that seasonal lake behind. That's news enough.	The seasonal lake
The fields are colored with harebells and yarrows.	Corn lilies
More corn lilies in bloom	There are still some lupines.
It's like an impressionist painting.	You can see the colors of the flowers in the fields.

Keywords: flowers, high country, hurricane hill, summer

08/15/10 - Obstruction Point We were back at Obstruction Point. The snow is melting rapidly, forming fantastic shapes as it does in the summer mountains. Wild lakes appear in the wakes of melting snow fields, and all around the flowers are in bloom.	Melting snow
The vista	The trail
An emerging lake	Snow saved by shadow
Phlox	More fields

Keywords: flowers, obstruction point, summer, high country

07/29/10 - Obstruction Point Obstruction Point Road has been open for a bit over a week, and we Kalebergs were not far behind. The road itself is in good shape, though dusty and vertiginous. The scenery, was spectacular. The hiking trail is still partly covered with snow, but the portion we take was not hard going. The snow that there is was soft. Other hikers had seen marmots, but we didn't see any. We did see lots of wildflowers: phlox, pink paintbrush, lupines, asters, and, of course, the melting snow. Some of the lakes below are stil covered, though some have melted through. Now that Obstruction Point is open, we can say with certainty, the high country is open.	A view from the parking lot
That little lake seen descending the stone staircase	Snow on the trail
The mountains	It's sort of like this.
One of the lakes	The snow ridge
Pink paintbrush	Lupines
We're not sure of what this is, and we're not ashamed to admit it.	Phlox

Keywords: flowers, high country, obstruction point, marmots

07/22/10 - Seen on the Lake Angeles Trail

We saw these spooky indian pipes on the Lake Angeles trail. They are always way too early for Halloween.

Spooky indian pipes

Keywords: lake angeles, flowers

07/20/10 - Hurricane Hill The Hurricane Hill trail is one of our favorite trails. It offers the high country, amazing views and great accessibility. This year, the flowers have been spectacular. The corn lilies are not quite out yet, but they're getting there. The big excitement this year, was that there is a bear down in one of the valleys visible from the trail. Usually, when we spot a bear in the high country, all we see is a large dark dot moving against the green below. This bear was close enough to positively identify it as such. To be honest, that's about close enough a sighting for us.	Definitely a bear, not a marmot and weird atmospheric effects
The bear is down there.	A snow crescent on the north face.
From the corn lily side spur	Corn lilies
Sometimes it's the grasses.	A floral spectacular
Avalanche lilies	Lupines

Keywords: flowers, high country, hurricane hill, trails, animals

07/13/10 - Klahane Ridge It took us a bit of doing, but we managed to climb up the Switchback Trail to Klahane Ridge. We had been putting it off for all the usual reasons which generally come down to laziness and possibly cowardice. We hadn't really intended to get all the way up to the ridge. In fact, our goal was the junction with the trail to the lodge, around 630' above the parking lot. Somehow, we pushed on, climbing another 850' or so. We were well rewarded. The snows have melted, save for a few patches by the side of the trail. The flowers are in serious bloom, and we even managed to catch a few avalanche lilies along with the usual glacier lilies, violets, phlox, indian paintbrush, cow parsnip, and a host of others. But, the big reward was at the ridge itself. No, there wasn't much of a view of Port Angeles. The bowl in the mountains was full of cloud, but right on the trail was a male mountain goat in a clearly mellow mood. He posed for the camera, munched on the foliage, gave himself a dust bath and sauntered on. There was another reward waiting for us near our trailhead. All along the trail the air was full of phlox, a deep sweet scent, but there was a different scent, a familiar one. The bog orchids in the streams by the parking lot were coming into bloom. All told, it was a most rewarding hike. P.S. Did we mention the views? Yes, there were spectacular views.	Our ascent into the clouds
The hanging gardens	The view from above
A surprisingly mellow mountain goat	Posing for the camera
He's so cute.	Another view
Violets	Phlox
This is a great year for larkspur.	Bog orchids

Keywords: flowers, klahane ridge, port angeles, animals

07/12/10 - Elwha Out Of Whiskey Bend Whiskey Bend has been busy lately, so the winding one and a half lane road leading up there has been a bit more of a driving challenge. Still, we had to go, if only to see how the river was doing. Well, the river is doing just fine. The wild roses are out, as are the turk's cap lilies. The thistles though seem to be dying. If nothing else, they are kind of twisted. Our big treat was seeing two fawns. One was on the trail and scampered into the woods where we couldn't get a good photograph. The other was right on the road. We had to stop, so we took a few pictures while we shared the road.	The forest floor
The field near Hume's Ranch	The Elwha River
Wild roses	A dying thistle
Turk's cap lilies	Mother and baby

Keywords: elwha, flowers, summer, animals

07/11/10 - Tiarella on the Lake Angeles Trail

It's like walking through a terrarium. If you keep your eyes open, you might see anything. Here is some tiarella, late to bloom in the forest shade.

Tiarella

Keywords: flowers

07/08/10 - Hurricane Hill We were up Hurricane HIll again. It's a spectacular walk. The lupines are coming along nicely. There is still lots of snow on the north face, but the shaded, snow covered portion of the trail has just about melted out.	The view
Lupine's progress	Another view - There are lots more where that came from.
Snow on the north face	Glacier lilies and some other flower we should look up

Keywords: hurricane hill, flowers

07/06/10 - Wild Roses

This is the season of the wild roses.

Wild roses at Lake Crescent on the Spruce Railroad Trail

Keywords: lake crescent, spruce railroad, flowers

06/27/10 - The Hurricane Hill Trail While we were off in Hawaii, the snows of the high country were melting. Not only was the road to Hurricane Hill open, but the trail was free of snow save for one section which is shaded by trees. It's great getting back up there, and already the flowers are in bloom. So far, this looks like it is going to be a great year in the mountains.	An avalanche lily
The big mountains are covered with snow, but down on Hurricane Hill, the snow is melting apace.	Another view
The high country	That section of snowy trail - not as bad as it looks.
Phlox scents the air.	One of our marmot friends
We really need to look up what this flower is on the internet.	Some of the first lupine
Indian paintbrush	Glacier lilies

Keywords: flowers, high country, hurricane hill

06/09/10 - Larkspur by the Roadside

We always think of larkspur as a high altitude plant, so it is surprising to see it growing along Olympic Hot Springs Road not far from the junction with 101. It's in full bloom right now, and a bit tricky to find. If nothing else, all eyes are on the Elwha River this time of year. This larkspur grows across the road. Look for a power line pole on the right as you are heading north if you care to find this patch.

Keywords: summer, flowers, elwha

Bay leaves with flowers

05/12/10 - Bay Leaves in Bloom

Our bay bush is in bloom, so now our bay leaves have blossoms on them. They are definitely prettier than just plain bay leaves.

Keywords: flowers, food

04/30/10 - Dungeness Dike Poppies

Here are some of the amazing orange California poppies along the Dungeness Dike Trail. They were so brilliant, we thought they were artificial, like surveyor's marking tape, from the distance.

California poppies up north

Keywords: dungeness dike trail, flowers

04/29/10 - Trilliums on the Lake Angeles Trail We've already noted a number of trilliums at the lower elevations, but now we've seen a few up around 2,000 feet, on the Lake Angeles Trail. Right now, they are only blooming near the trailhead, but they'll be opening up at high levels soon.	All kinds of flowers
Some kind of orchid	Another trilium

Keywords: flowers, lake angeles, trillium

04/17/10 - Trilliums

Trilliums are a certain sign of spring. They can be surprisingly tricky to find, for it seems that the mind builds a block against seeing them, but once one has been found, others abound. We noticed this on the Spruce Railroad Trail and on the Elwha Trail out of Whiskey Bend. Trilliums like water, so watch for them near streams where they often lurk. We wish you luck in your trillium spotting, but note that success, especially in this endeavor, favors the prepared mind.

Seen on the Spruce Railroad Trail

Seen on the Elwha Trail

The first paintbrush

Keywords: elwha, spring, spruce railroad, flowers, trillium

02/12/10 - Hellebores

Our hellebores are in bloom. Enough said.

Hellebore blossoms

Keywords: flowers

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