Hoping for Wild Flowers in Happy Valley

One of my goals is to get up to Happy Valley, four miles above Tumalo Falls, to witness the gorgeous wildflower bloom. It's quite amazing to see acres and acres of purple shooting stars and yellow cinquefoils. Throw in glorious white marsh marigolds along the edges of the creeks and swampy areas and you have quite the tableau.

Timing the peak wildflower bloom is always a crapshoot: two years ago, the last week of June was too late and last year, it was almost perfect. I haven't been able to find out good information about the condition of the trail, so I set out to find out for myself. Even though it is very early, I'm itching to get up there and shoot some pictures. Worst case, I figured, is that it would be a pleasant mosquito-free walk. By the end of the month, the little terrorists will be out in man-eating swarms, the downside of the main wildflower bloom.

Tumalo Falls, Raging with Meltwater

The weather forecast in Bend was a sunny 71, though it was only about 63 in full sun when I left the house at 9am. As soon as I turned west on Skyliners, I saw dark gray clouds massed over the mountains and those clouds were coming towards me. It was impossible at any point to see any peaks. Halfway out Skyliners, I started running through wet patches on the road from showers that I had just missed.

Moreover, as I climbed from 4000 feet in town to 5000 feet at the foot of Tumalo Falls, the thermometer continued to drop. With the sun long forgotten, it was a misty and rainy 47 when I got my truck parked just over the bridge, pointed back in the direction of town. That's the best parking spot at Tumalo in my opinion because you don't have to fool around with navigating the tiny and crowded parking lot as you are leaving.

Long story short, I would not see the sun all morning and while it was misty, real showers were infrequent and short. The bigger issue in staying dry was to make sure to shake the water off the brush before I walked through it. I was comfortable walking in shorts and it would warm to 53 degrees by the time I returned off the mountain.

For perspective, let us say that the parking lot sits at 5000 feet and four miles up the mountain, Happy Valley sits at 6100 feet, give or take. The log bridge that marks the halfway point is about 5600 feet. The snow started around 5300 feet and it was possible to fairly easily navigate it and the deadfall to about 5500 feet. At 5500 feet, I pushed on to nearly the log bridge before I ran out of defined track and was mainly breaking trail through the snow. I turned around at 5600 feet after a quarter mile of slogging through solid snow, just before the halfway point.

There were no wildflowers above the main falls. After the snow cut my hike short, I decided to nose around below the parking lot to see what was in bloom there on along the creek. The following photos are in the order that I shot them. While it wasn't a great day weatherwise, any day on the trail beats a day banging on a keyboard.

A Misty Rainy Day

Raindrops on Woodland Strawberry, Fragaria vesca

Littleleaf Huckleberry, Vaccinium scoparium
Tiny, a Dozen Blooms Will Fit on a Dime

Handsome Sticky Currant Foliage, Ribes viscosissimum

Alpine Jelly Cone, Guepiniopsis alpina

Endangered Whitebark Pine, Pinus albicaulis
The Lowest I Have Ever Seen at 5320 Feet

Grand Old Ponderosa, Pinus ponderosa, on Tumalo Canyon;
Oddity in a Forest of Doug Fir, True Fir, Spruce, and Mountain Hemlock

Prince's Pine, Chimaphila umbellata, with Last Year's Seed Pods

Oregon Boxleaf, Paxistima myrsinites, in Bloom

Wide Spot with Engelmann Spruce, Picea engelmannii

A Little Greenleaf Manzanita, Arctostaphylos patula, Still in Bloom
Pinemat Manzanita Not Yet Blooming

Anemone Closed Against the Rain, But A. lyallii or A. deltoideum?
My Gut Says Lyall's but You Must Count Stamens

A Jacob's Ladder, Polemonium sp.
Thousands of Plants, but Only One in Bloom

One Final Oregon Grape in Bloom, Berberis aquifolium

Sticky Currants Blooming Everywhere, Ribes viscosissimum

First Paintbrush of the Year, Castilleja sp.
We Have 26 Species of Paintbrush Here

I Love the Interplay of the Green Leaves and Dead Wood
Plumed or False Solomon's Seal, Maianthemum racemosum

Woodland Strawberry, Fragaria vesca

First Asterid of the Season
I Want to Say Senecio triangularis

A Yellow Stream Violet, Viola glabella

Last of the Western Serviceberry in Bloom, Amelanchier alnifolia

A New Plant for Me
Northern Black Currant, Ribes hudsonianum

Even though I was a couple weeks, at least, early in trying to climb to Happy Valley, and despite the somewhat Willamette Valley-style gray and rainy weather, I still had a great mosquito-free walk. I'll try again in a couple of weeks.