This past weekend I was on the east side of the Cascades for a Washington Native Plant Society state board meeting in Ellensburg. We had a productive session all day Saturday, but six-hour meetings are trying even when everyone is on the same track and the discussion is genial. The cure? A day tromping in the field to see what’s blooming.

Sunday, Walt Lockwood and I headed down to Yakima and west another 15 miles to the mouth of Waterworks Canyon. It’s a fairly small canyon tending north-south that drains into the Naches River. The land is on the Oak Creek Wildlife Area, administered by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. There’s a small parking area on the north side of the highway about a quarter mile west of the junction of WA 410 and US 12. [N 46° 44.921′ W 120° 47.874′]

The mouth of the canyon is just over 1600′ elevation. After passing through the gate, we were soon greated by spectacular displays of Carey’s Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza careyana) and Showy Phlox (Phlox speciosa), particularly on the east-facing hillside that was bathed in early morning sunshine under a brilliant clear blue sky.

There was a little Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) in bloom in the lower reaches, and lots of the shrub near the watercourse about as far as we hiked. Later in the year the canyon will be sweet with the smell of Mock Orange (Philadelphus lewisii), which was just leafing out and didn’t show any conspicuous flower buds.

We found four species of desert parsley in bloom. There were small quantities of Nine-leaf (Lomatium triternatum) and great masses of Fernleaf (Lomatium dissectum) and Gray’s (Lomatium grayi). Fernleaf is also sometimes known as Chocolate Tips because of the deep chocolate-red color of the flowers. Walt and I were both surprised to find modest quantities of Columbia Desert Parsley (Lomatium columbianum) because it is endemic primarily to the Columbia Gorge.

The trail, a well-worn but unmaintained boot track, meanders back and forth across the creek as it gains elevation. One local person we encountered reported that this was only the second time he’d seen the creek actually running. There was quite a good water flow, and it appeared that it probably ran consistently in the spring most years. There were brushy thickets we had to pass through in places. The basalt along the way was often encrusted with a diverse collection of lichens which Walt paid more attention to than I did.

Toward the top of our hike, about 1100′ up and a little under a mile and a half of walking, we found fairly large patches of Trumpet Lungwort (Mertensia longiflora) with brilliant blue flowers on stems only about six inches tall. There were also a few small clumps of Sagebrush Buttercups (Ranunculus glaberrimus). We ate lunch perched on lumps of basalt just past where the trail finally breaks clear of the trees and shrubs. Looking back down the canyon, the Aspen trunks glowed white in the mid-day sun. In autumn their leaves will turn brilliant gold, contrasting with the dark basalt on the canyon walls. On this day, their buds had just started to swell.

We don’t often think of trees as having flowers, but they are flowering plants. This was the first time I’d had an opportunity to examine the blossoms of Douglas Maple (Acer glabrum var. douglasii) up close. I’ve often thought of Vine Maple and Douglas Maple as being quite similar, but their flowers are very different.

I always seem to carry more photographic gear on my back than I use, but I don’t seem to be able to leave extra lenses in the car or at home. We’d been told there was a possibility of seeing bighorn sheep in the canyon, so I carried a long lens just in case. The sheep hid, and I never used the lens. Everything I photographed this day was done with a 28-135m zoom or 100mm macro lens. These are really two workhorse lenses in my bag. Since the sky was brilliantly sunny, I used a 1-stop diffuser for almost all the flower close-ups. It was sometimes a challenge to hold it in place because of the near-constant wind.

We saw more plants, not all of which I stopped to photograph. You can see the entire gallery at Waterworks Canyon. Walt made a list of many of the species we saw in bloom:

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