Doris the Explorist: May 2017

Yellow are Balsamroot, purple are Lupine, and white are Phlox

Location: Horse Lake Reserve in Wenatchee, WA
Date Hiked: Saturday May 13, 2017
Miles hiked: Less than 5 miles
Difficulty: Easy

This past weekend, I left the planning to Katherine and she brought us out to Wenatchee to chase Lupine, Balsamroot, Phlox, Brodiaea, and a handful of other wildflowers we couldn't name. Cody and I were looking for a mellow weekend since we are leaving for a big trip in a week, and so a romp in the foothills of Wenatchee sounded perfect to us! The drive time R/T was 6 hours, so we still had a pretty long day, but at least it wasn't too strenuous.

We left Seattle around 8 am and got to the trailhead around 11 am, the last 3 miles of the drive is dirt road, which is suitable for small cars, just drive slow lol. I have always found land trusts to be special places, and Horse Lake Reserve is actually located on the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust, meaning it's protected land. When we hit the trail, it was raining and very cold, we were all pretty miserable. But as the day went on the weather got better and the sun even came out! There are some flowers at the beginning of the trail, but it gets better the further you go into the foothills. Fields upon fields of yellow, white, and purple wildflowers! I have never seen anything like it before!

This area seemed to be a popular mountain biking area. We didn't pass that many people on the trail which was nice, but when we did pass people they were mostly mountain bikers. Because of the bikers though, the trails are a little rougher than normal, and a lot narrower of paths.

Very thankful Katherine was with us, because I learned so much this weekend! She knew a lot of the names of the wildflowers since her old pops taught her. Thanks Katherine!

We ended the day in Leavenworth, with burgers and beer on the patio. The weekend's weather forecast wasn't looking too great, but turned out for the better. It definitely felt like spring.

Until next time Wenatchee!