Mt. Ashland + Crater Lake Wildflower Walks 8-2-24

Photos by Darryl, Kay, Liz and Sunny

Ashland Hiking Home

Eager AHG wildflower enthusiasts combed Mt. Ashland and Mt. Mazama (aka Crater Lake) Friday.  Early air quality reports of 242 at park HQ split the group: Kay, George, Sunny and Mike headed to Crater Lake while Darryl, Bonnie, Gaylene, Kate and I opted for Mt. Ashland.  Both groups were very happy with their day, and a good time was had by all.

Mt Ashland slopes were brimming with blooms.  We checked off all but 2 flowers from our 43 species list, plus added nine more!  The photos will give you an idea of the bounty. Thanks to Kate, we learned that there are two corn lilies, the white California corn lily and the green corn lily (or green False hellabore).  We also spotted what turned out to be the ruby red fruits of the Western asphodel (Triantha occidentalis), discovered to be carnivorous just 3 years ago in 2021 https://www.sci.news/biology/carnivorous-triantha-occidentalis-09947.html

To the northeast, the Crater Lake four saw many of our favorite wildflowers at Castle Creek, though Kay reported the flowers were less diverse than usual because of the warmer growing season.  Sunny and Mike gave an enthusiastic thumbs up for the Annie's Creek canyon trail while Kay and George headed back down Highway 62 to the well-named Huckleberry Hill adjacent to the Thousand Springs snowpark where I'd been the previous week. They picked a quart of huckleberries before being enticed back to the many wildflowers.  The four met back at the Prospect Hotel for a delicious dinner and overnight stay.

Respectfully submitted, Your Flower Floozy Liz