Wildflower Bloom Reports for Central & Eastern Oregon: 2008

Wildflower Bloom in Central & Eastern Oregon: June 25 and 26, 2008

Coyote Campground

Wallowa-Whitman National Forest

a view southeast to the Wallowa Mts. from Red Hill Lookout, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.........June 25, 2008.

The photo above shows a view southeast to the Wallowa Mts. from Red Hill............June 25, 2008. Some of the flowers in the photograph include woolly balsamroot (Balsamorhiza incana), Cusick's paintbrush (Castilleja cusickii), and bighead clover (Trifolium macrocephalum).

Coyote Campground can be best be accessed by Oregon State Highway #3 proceeding north from Enterprise, OR. One then turns east onto Forest Road 46 and proceed uphill, eventually with great views southeast towards Zumwalt Prairie. Several miles north of Red Hill (a lookout with more great views), one arrives at Coyote Campground at the junctions of FS Roads #4650 and #4665. Forest Road#46 continues eastward, eventually arriving at Buckhorn Lookout before turning southward towards Joseph, OR. This road (Rd #46) would make a good full days round trip, especially by starting in the east and working westward so that one can enjoy the views as one descends towards upper Chief Joseph Canyon in the west. Bring a good forest map as I've run across people lost up here before, although if you stick to the main road, you should be fine.

Coyote Campground is a small campground with pit toilet outhouses and a few campsites with picnic tables. It's pretty remote here, so you may not see many other campers here except during hunting season.

* indicates flowers currently in bloom

Bulbous Bluegrass: Poa bulbosa -

Stinging Nettles: Urtica dioica -

*Tapertip Onion: Allium accuminatum -

* Jone's Onion: Allium fibrillum -

* Common Camas: Camassia quamash - Fading out of bloom.

* Douglas' Brodiaea - Triteleia grandiflora ssp. grandiflora (formerly Brodiaea douglasii) -

California False Hellebore: Veratrum (californicum var. californicum ?) -

* Meadow Death Camas: Zigadenus venonosus -

* Bigleaf Sandwort: Moehringia macrophylla -

* Piper's Anemone: Anemone piperi -

Yellow Columbine: Aquilegia flavescens -

* Sugar Bowls, Leather Flower: Clematis hirsutissima -

* Upland Larkspur: Delphinium nuttallianum -

* Western Meadowrue: Thalictrum occidentale -

* Wormleaf Stonecrop: Sedum stenopetalum -

* Small-flowered Prairie Star: Lithophragma parviflora -

* Prickly Currant: Ribes lacustre -

* Sticky Currant: Ribes viscosissimum var. viscosissimum -

* Wood Strawberry: Fragaria vesca ssp. bracteata -

* Broadpetal Strawberry: Fragaria virginiana ssp. platypetala -

* Prairie Smoke: Geum triflorum var. ciliatum -

Fan-leaved Cinquefoil: Potentilla gracilis var. flabelliformis -

* Spurred Lupine: Lupinus arbustus (Lupinus laxiflorus) -

* Twin Clover: Trifolium latifolium -

* Cusick's Shooting Star: Dodecatheon cusickii - Gland-tipped hairs on pedicels.

Narrow-leaved Collomia: Collomia linearis -

* Harkness' Linanthus or Northern Linanthus: Leptosiphon harknessii or Leptosiphon septrionalis - Tiny white flowers.

* Midget Phlox: Microsteris gracilis -

Great Basin Nemophila: Nemophila breviflora -

Red Bessya: Bessya rubra -

* Small-flowered Blue-eyed Mary: Collinsia parviflora -

* Cleavers, Annual Bedstraw: Galium aparine -

* Yarrow: Achillea millefolium var. occidentalis -

* Heart-leaf Arnica: Arnica cordifolia -

Low Gumweed: Grindelia nana var. nana -

Scouler's Hawkweed: Hieracium scouleri -

* Nodding Microseris: Microseris nutans -

* Western Groundsel: Senecio integerrimus var. exaltatus -

* Common Dandylion: Taraxacum officinale -

Views to Wallowa Mts. from Red Hill - Views to Zumwalt Prairie from Forest Road #46

The photo at left shows a view across Zumwalt Prairie (at center distance) as seen from flower-filled slopes at Red Hill Lookout. The photo at right shows views across the western edge of Zumwalt Prairie towards the Wallowa Mts. from the grassy slopes of Forest Road #46 a mile or so north of Road #4625..........June 25, 2008.
Paul Slichter