Greg and I headed out to Catherine Creek on Sunday to check on the wildflowers. There weren’t very many cars there when we arrived about 11, but there were a lot more when we left. Weirdly, some guy in a black truck from Nevada was sitting in the parking lot with his engine running (a BIG pet peeve of mine, especially in the Gorge) when we hit the lower trail, and he was STILL there with his engine running when we finished up the lower trail an hour later!
They have paved the little area where the toilet is, but that’s the only change I saw from last year. We saw grass widows within the first few minutes of our walk. There are a fair number of them blooming right now, far more than I would expect for early February. For every blooming flower, there are 20 more little shoots which will become beautiful blooms in a few weeks. The previous night’s rain created beautiful little droplets of water on the flowers.
It also created hundreds of awesome little droplets on the ends of the Ponderosa Pine needles. They looked like little jewels! The picture doesn’t do it justice.
It was a tad nippy, but to my delight there was NO WIND. For all the times I’ve been here, I could count on one hand the number of times it hasn’t been windy. It was so calm, in fact, that the Columbia was glassy and reflective.
After finishing the lower loop and eating lunch in the car, we headed up towards the corral. Didn’t see any flowers blooming along this stretch yet. I did, however, spot some unexpected mushrooms. I’m not used to seeing them at the onset of spring! These were growing out of one of those giant mossy boulders at the base of the rockslide near the corral.
Recovering from a cold, I made the corral my turn-around point. While I fiddled with the macro lens and the mushrooms and then moseyed back to the car, Greg went ahead and did the whole loop above the arch.
All in all, a fine day at Catherine Creek. It’s so much more pleasant when it’s not windy! And those grass widows are coming along nicely. They should start putting on a nice show in a few weeks!
