Looking For Wildflowers on the PCT

Rich, Jon, Darryl, Kay, Sabin, Debra and I decided to first revisit our freezing-rain interrupted PCT to Pilot Rock walk of May 21 WW, but weren’t sure what we’d find with the hot, dry weather advancing the season so dramatically. The clay soil along the path through the swales did retain some moisture, but while we didn’t find lots of flowers, we discovered some little gems like the exquisite Deptford or Grass pink and Dense-flowered willowherb. We also learned from Jon how the Trailplant got its name – its striking pale underside alerts trackers that something big has come by and overturned the leaf.

At this point in the season, to find wildflowers you find water, so we turned around at the big meadow and decided to try our luck on the PCT from Milepost 7 on the Ski Road heading towards Grouse Gap. A nice big spring-fed slope provided lots of botanizing fun, including my favorite of the day, the Chocolate cone flower, that has no ray flowers but its tiny disk flowers were bombarded by bees.

Flower List

Photos By: Kay