There’s a beautiful sign proclaiming that we had indeed arrived at the preserve, but there were no discernible trails. We flagged down the young Nature Conservancy fellow who happened to be passing by, and he told us to head for the blue-topped wooden things and to climb over the fence. So we did.
Zumwalt Prairie Preserve
Abandoned barn on the preserve
Golden Eagle feather
Basically, we just bushwhacked through the grasslands for several miles. The prairie doesn’t look like much from afar, but once you get into the midst of the grasses, the wildflowers make themselves known.
Hiking the prairie
We found at least three-dozen species of flowers, including several that we had never before seen. With no trails, there were also obviously no signs identifying the flowers. But with a bit of research, I’ve managed to find out their names—prairie smoke, pink-fairy (or ragged robin), and monument plant (or elk weed) are a few of our new favorites.
Prairie smoke
Pink fairy
Monument plant
Another 15 miles further along a winding dirt road took us to Buckhorn Overlook, in the Hell’s Canyon Recreation Area with views into Imnaha Canyon. We didn’t have to search for wildflowers at the overlook—they were right there, front and center. The opening photo is from the overlook. It’s an absolutely spectacular place.
Buckhorn Overlook
WOW!
That Mariposa is gorgeous…
Mariposa is one of my favorite wildflowers — another name is cat’s ear because that’s just what it looks like.
Love the picture of you and Eric. What beautiful country. Looks so relaxing! :)
It is relaxing — and virtually untouched. We saw three other people the entire day we were exploring. The one couple took a photo of us and we took a photo of them — we hardly ever get photos of us together!
Thank you for the wonderful photos and descriptions! As you know we are headed there in September and it is wonderful to see what the landscape looks like this time of year:)
Thanks for sharing your adventures!
It’s a gorgeous place — hope you’ll take photos so that we can see what it looks like in September.
Looks like a great start to a marvelous adventure. I’ve been on several flower walks but the flowers are odd and not abundant this year – like no fields of Scarlet Gilia on Mt. Ashland 2 weeks age. No Rufous Hummingbirds either. I am going to a butterfly workshop this weekend.
Miss you.
We miss you too, Barbara! Come meet us somewhere on the road for some hiking and birding!