Mara Mountain Nature Hike
On an early May day I hiked up to the top of Mara Mountain from Pruden Pass, the northeast route. there are no trails for half of the hike, but it is a route I have been doing every year for over 40 years. This was a solo 3 hour hike with lots of steep hiking. All was quiet on the mountain, except for a few birds and some scats along the way. I have never encountered other hikers on that route, although I have run into bears, coyotes, deer, cattle, and wild horses on rare occasions. It was a good hike, but I also stopped along the way to photograph nature’s offerings. Some of the wildflowers are shared here, including upland larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum), lemonweed/stoneseed (Lithospermum ruderale), thread-leaved sandwort (Arenaria capillaris) , Okanogan fameflower (Tlinum sediforme) , stonecrop (Sedum lanceolatum) , narrow-leaved desert parsley (Lomatium triternatum), saskatoon (Amelanchier anifolia), small-flowered woodland stars (Lithophragma parviflorum) and shooting stars (Dodacatheon pulchellum sp.). Click an image for a lightbox view and a caption/ID.
Also shared here is a stylized photo of a juniper (Juniperus scopulorum), ponderosa pine puzzle bark (Pinus ponderosa), a pussytoes ring (Antennaria dimorpha), a mammal skull, and a route map.
More information:
- Info on larkspur, stonecrop, Okanogan fameflower, woodland star, and sandwort can be found on the Wildflowers page.
- A post on the hike can be found on Kamloopstrails.ca (May 19)
- A video on the hike can be seen on YouTube.