We have hiked from the confluence of the Mahood and Clearwater Rivers up to Sylvia and Goodwin Falls and back and we have hiked from the Mahood River down to the falls and back.   These trailheads are a day’s travel apart, one accessed from a long, rough backroad, and one from crossing a 20 km lake.

Along the scenic trail wildflowers greeted us,  inviting a closer look and a photograph.   This penstemon was growing in the waterfall spray zone, a micro-ecosystem.

Clubmosses were abundant in the forest along the trail.

clubmoss

Bunchberries had finished flowering and the berries had faded from red to orange.    It is sometimes called dwarf dogwood.

bunchberry

Large-leaved avens (geum macrophyllum) is a perennial that grows from rhizomes.   It grows mostly in wet forest openings.

Rattlesnake plantain (goodyera oblongifolia) grew in light shade, but were not yet in flower. These orchids have greenish-white flowers on tops of stalks.

rattlesnake plantain

Also in the spray zone were clusters of stachys, possibly marsh woundwort.

woundwort

The wet forest had many mosses, including this redstem moss.

redstem moss

In the wet spray zone, woundwort and mint were both in flower.

The area near the falls is a micro-ecological zone with continuous spray from late spring to late fall, providing a wet environment for the breadth of the growing season.

A YouTube video on this hike: