North Cascades National Park

 

View over glaciated granite at the Washington Pass Overlook along Hwy. 20 in North Cascades National Park.

After spending the weekend with family in Seattle we made the relatively short drive to North Cascades National Park, said to be among the least visited of all the national parks. Maybe they like it that way. The only lodging within the park are the campgrounds, and they were already full when we started planning the trip back in May. We got a hotel as close as we could, which was about 30 miles east of the park, in the town of Winthrop. With all the driving we'd done to get there, and all the driving we still had in front of us, we did not want to tack on a lot of extra miles doing round-trips, so we mostly stuck to the east side (which, like the towns east of the Sierra Nevada, is in a rain shadow).

Luckily, even a superficial drive-through yields excellent views of the mountains and forests, and there are several places to get out of the car and poke around. Rolling thunder greeted us the first time we stopped to check out the Skagit River, and rain soon followed. The only hike we did was the next day, on a very short paved trail to Rainy Lake, where a few interesting wildflowers, like queen's cup (Clintonia uniflora), were still in bloom, as well as several patches of coral fungus. 

We enjoyed the busy tourist town of Winthrop and found the plant-based food at Three Fingered Jacks Saloon and the Jupiter Cafe to be well above expectations, except for the prices which were surprisingly reasonable. We might have seen even less of the park if we'd arrived later in the month, when the tiny town rocks to the Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival.

I thought many of the tree-tops were dead until I realized the brown was the color of dense cones clustered at the tops of the spruce trees. In this view from the visitor center overlook, the distant mountains were completely obscured by clouds. Light rain with sprinkles of thunder gave the atmosphere a moody and beautiful Twin Peaks vibe.

Phone snap of maple leaves in the rain along the overlook trail.

The Twin Peaks vibe still held as we pulled into the Washington Pass Overlook, where we got our first look at this peak of the Early Winter Spires as soon as we got out of the car.

By the time we made the short walk out to the vista point, the rest of the spires had come out from behind the clouds.

After walking up and down Winthrop's boardwalks to look in the windows of the tourist shops, we caught the sunset from a pedestrian bridge over the Methow River just a short walk from our hotel.

The sky was clear the next morning when we drove back into the park.

A very short hike on a paved trail led us to this peaceful vista at Rainy Lake, where a tall waterfall cascaded down the cliffs at the opposite end.

The parking area at Rainy Lake was surrounded by deep woods and this sunny meadow.

Because I wasn't traveling alone I couldn't take all the time in the world to seek out nature's details within the vistas, so I felt lucky to have this swallowtail butterfly show up at one of our pull-outs.

The Early Winter Spires from Hwy. 20, the sole driving route through the park.

Panoramic vista from the Washington Pass Overlook.

Fireweed in a fire-scarred forest.

Google maps gave us the option of a route to our next destination (Olympic National Park) that avoided ferries, but added about 100 miles of driving and went east and south from Winthrop. It was tempting because we were unable to get a reservation for the ferry and would have to take our chances on stand-by. However, we had planned to return through the whole length of the national park, so we opted to take a chance on the ferries.

I'd seen these multitudes of roadside yarrow patches on the downhill to Winthrop, so I was ready to stop to photograph them on our way west the next morning.

The double-bunk log truck (used on winding roads) that we'd just passed a while back managed to pass us just as I was about to fold up the tripod and get back in the car. We saw many log trucks on our trip of course, and when they were traveling empty, the rear bunk would be folded onto the fifth-wheel plate on top of the front one. I wondered how they did that folding and finally saw the simple winch mechanism in operation later in Port Angeles.

Fireweed patch and forest along the Skagit River.

The skies had become overcast again by the time we reached the Diablo Lake Overlook. We had hoped to get a clear view of the mountains from the visitor center on our way out of the park, but it was not to be.

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Jedediah Smith Redwoods

 

Coast Redwoods, Stout Grove

Just back from a little road trip up north to see family, including laying eyes for the first time on an eight-month-old grand-nephew and his mom, as well as North Cascades National Park which has been on my bucket list for ages. We spent our first night on the road in Crescent City and just had time for a quick visit to the Stout Grove in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park before laying down the miles to Seattle the following day.

After stopping for lunch at the Cafe Phoenix in Arcata we were soon speeding past numerous patches of orange coast lily and sneaking quick peeks at enchanted, misty redwood forests decorated with bright, rose-colored rhododendron blossoms. 

It drove me mad to be unable to pull over anywhere to photograph these evanescent sights, especially where road repair work reduced Hwy. 101 to a single lane of one-way traffic following a guide vehicle. We passed numerous photogenic nooks and crannies where any viewshed consultant worth his silver halide would have created pull-outs. Then again, these off-limits (or at least hard-to-reach) areas are probably spectacular because we can't stop to see them: I love the Stout Grove, but the understory has been lovingly trampled right down to dirt.

Old Burl

Redwood Gnome

Secret Trail

The Immortals

Redwood Bark Furrows

Redwood Grandeur

Maple View

Forest Edge Along the Smith River

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Amorphophallus titanum

 

"Scarlet" the Corpse Flower, Conservatory of Flowers
Golden Gate Park, July 5, 2023

The tall plant behind the flower that looks like a slender tree is actually a very stout leaf that has sprouted from a corpse plant's subterranean corm. The photosynthesizing leaf will nourish the corm, then die back to make room for the rising blossom.

The Conservatory is usually closed on Wednesdays, and we thought we were out of luck until they announced mid-morning today that they would open for a few hours at noon. We were glad to have another opportunity since the bloom, which only happens every 2-3 years, will almost certainly fade by tomorrow.

We waited in line for about 40 minutes to get an in-person look at this native of the Sumatran jungle, and after ogling the exquisite corpse to our heart's content, we continued to enjoy the many other interesting and beautiful plants within the greenhouse. (Afterward we hit up the Hometown Creamery).

The tall spadix is covered with pollen-generating male flowers, and the female flowers are near the bottom. After pollination by flies and beetles, the fruits take up to a year to mature, and are then eaten by birds which disperse the seeds. I held my camera as high as I could but couldn't get an angle any deeper into the bowl. We were allowed to touch a preserved sheet of the red spathe from a prior bloom, and it felt almost tough yet supple enough to be used to make clothing.

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The Corpse Flower Lives

The Conservatory of Flowers had been predicting that the corpse flower's opening was imminent for about a week, but even by Sunday, July 2, it remained stubbornly closed. Thankfully we were able to keep track of it via the web cam, and I took several screenshots in anticipation of its grand opening.

 

Like my trail cameras, the Conservatory's web cam also has decent night vision.

I checked the web cam throughout the day and saw the flower's first opening at around 4 p.m. yesterday. I don't know how long people had to wait in line to get in before the plant opened, but these lucky viewers no doubt had it easier than folks who went after news of its opening got out. The only thing the early birds missed was the corpse-like stink, which apparently didn't come on strong until later.

My wife and I went down around 8:15 p.m. yesterday but turned around and went home when we saw how long the line was. It was certainly going to be more than a 45-minute wait, and the Conservatory had posted that the "last entry" would be 9 p.m. As you can see, they were still letting people in after 10 p.m.!

Scarlet the Corpse Flower was looking good this morning, ready for the large numbers of Fourth of July visitors.

I took a spin past the Conservatory on my bike to see that the line snaked from the front entrance, east all the way down the length of the building and beyond, then up a winding pedestrian path to Conservatory Drive at Arguello Blvd., then downhill to the vehicle barrier. My wife read on social media that people were waiting two hours to get in to have a look at this infrequently blooming flower -- and imbibe a good snootful of Scarlet's beguiling scent.

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Grass Catchers

 

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As I said in my last post, I encountered numerous grass species on my ride up Panoramic Highway to Mt. Tamalpais on Thursday. I told myself I'd drive up early Saturday morning to collect a few of them to bring home and photograph, but because I've gotten used to sleeping in now that my wife is on summer break, I wasn't sure I'd actually make the effort. Also, a couple of cats woke us up with a rowdy caterwauling racket last night that sounded like really bad violin-playing. We even got out of bed and went outside to peer through the dense fog to see if Coco, the neighborhood cat who adopted us, was in trouble. I figured the cats would be okay between themselves, but I also hoped they wouldn't attract the attention of a passing coyote.

Despite the interruption, I woke up before six this morning anyway. It was light out already, so I figured I'd roll myself out of bed and get to it. On my second stop I pulled off Panoramic Highway in front of a car that I figured had been parked there all night. I went out and scissored a couple flower heads and the woman in the car poked her head out and asked me if I was collecting wild edibles. Although I believe all grasses are technically edible (i.e., not poisonous), I simply told her I was doing a photo project.

I collected at a few other spots and timed my arrival to coincide with the 7 a.m. opening time at Pantoll gate, but the ranger was a few minutes late and other cars were already waiting ahead of me. Both the Bootjack and Pantoll campgrounds had lots of cars in their lots, and a few campers must have hiked up the road for sunrise. At one point I pulled over near a couple of young women who were walking back down, and they stopped in their tracks. I got out of the car and explained to their obvious relief that I was just collecting grass (the most natural thing in the world, right?).

I put the specimens in a shoe box and separated each species with a length of paper towel. I'm not very handy at identifying grasses and figured I'd collected some of the same species more than once. I'd have been happy to bring home ten species in all, but I was glad to see when I was done that I had nineteen. I checked iNaturalist's Mt. Tam section for a few IDs, but I still wasn't confident enough to hazard many guesses. If they have a grass person who fills in the IDs I'll come back and update this page.

I've always been curious about these strangely flowered plants, but aside from pulling grass seeds out of my socks I have very little interaction with them (not counting the 35 species we eat, like rice, corn, wheat, barley, oats, etc.). I'm sure I lack the patience to learn the nitty-gritty of identifying grasses, but I would like to at least learn the names of our most common species.

Waiting for the Gate to Open

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