Where the wild things are part xx???
I must admit I have lost count on what chapter of the Wild Things installment we are on now, I guess that’s good because it means adventures into nature, which is really the whole point of this project anyway. For this chapter, we began by trying to save the dog some noise induced trauma that comes around every July, poor creature is allergic to fireworks and most noises above a loud hand clap for that matter. A quick jaunt to the sage brush, alkali lake bottoms and fault uplifted crags and windswept ridges of the Warner Mountains seemed like a good place to escape the noise.
This little mountain range first came into our sphere of knowledge when Christine Ebrahimi, a botanist from our local NARGS chapter did a talk on an epic backpacking trip featuring an amazing array of wildflowers some years ago. Joleen and I visited the Suprise Valley a few winters later when I was keen on skiing as many of the out of the way, micro hill “resorts” if you can call them that, and we found Cedar Pass devoid of enough snow to open the t bar, but I post holed up and made a few turns on the tele’s and we soaked in the hot springs. Joleen and an old college girlfriend did a backpacking trip a few summers ago and she came back raving about the wildflowers and the desolation. Those are two things I can get behind any day. Our original plan to backpack up to as high of elevation as we could get to go waylaid by a doozy of a head cold that zapped us both, so we decided to switch gears and do some roadside botanizing and save our strength for recuperating in the hot springs.
Calochortus macrocarpus, the sage brush mariposa lily getting some pollination action.
The Warners are unique mountain range, running North to South some 85 miles from Southern Oregon into Northern California, they aren’t the Klamath/Siskiyous/Cascades and they aren’t the Sierra Nevada. They are part of the great basin ranges, formed by both uplifting from faults and volcanic action, the geology is fantastic and the rock formations stunning. The interesting and sad story of the Modoc Wars and Captain Jacks final stand in the lava beds can be found on PBS (long live public broadcasting!) or a dozen or more podcasts if that is your thing. The story of Kintpuash and the killing of General Canby (the highest ranking Army soldier killed in the US indian wars) ranks above Custers (Lt. Col) last stand if you ask me in the annals of the indigenous struggle to maintain their land. The Warners were one of the final hurdles for the Westward bound wagon trains, as they navigated the applegate/lassen trail. We spent a day driving over the old wagon road, marked now with a bronze plaque.
The flora was fantastic, and while we didn’t get to backpack up to the snowline like I was hoping, the warm and dry spring had left us a bunch of ripe seeds where we were able to get to elevation. I was elated to find Astragalus whitneyi, Stenotus acaulis, Lewisia redivia, Pheonicaulis cheranthoides, several good alpine Erigeron, and a host of other choice things in seed. As we get these hotter and hotter summers, one plant I have been so impressed with in the rock garden are the Eriogonum’s. The Warners played host to a nice selection of them and we will be adding some of these wonderful western buckwheats to our already diverse selection over the next few years. Check out the gallery for some of our finds on this fantastic trip through the Warner Moutains.
I ran across some research papers that referenced Tufa deposits along the ancient shorelines of the pleistocene lake that once filled Surprise Valley. We spent some time driving along the shoreline on the Nevada side looking for this elusive rock but no luck. The geology was super cool though and to see the alkali playa’s filled with water was super cool. There was still some snow on the highest peaks of the South Warner Wilderness and of course now that we home and finally over the stupid head cold that kept us out of the highest elevations we are looking forward to getting back down there. Of course other mountains are calling and hopefully we can bag a few more peaks and find some more cool flowers this summer.
Upcoming Sales Event:
Reminder we will be featuring some of our best crevice, rock garden and alpine plants at the upcoming Rancho Cistus Summer Extravaganza this Saturday, July 12th
Click here for details and I will post another update when I get the plants pulled for the sale.