Elephant Hill Provincial Park has unspoiled (not grazed) grassland slopes of bunchgrass, but is one of the driest areas of the province. There are no trees and almost no shrubs. On a recent hike there was native grasses, wildflowers, and cactus. Since the hills are not very accessible, there is not much disturbed ground and few invasive species and any plant has to be be able to withstand the south-facing dry slopes. This is not a great summer hike, but in spring at the right time, there are many wildflowers, including bitterroot (Lewisia redviva), the highlight of any day’s hike.
The hills between Cache Creek and Spence’s Bridge have patches of bitterroot, but it may take some exploration to find them.
There were a variety of other wildflowers along the 8.2 km hike, including salsify (Tragopogan dubius), two types of phacelia, orange arnica (Arnica fulgens), meadow death-camas (Zigadenus venenosus) , yarrow (Achillea millefolium), tall tumble-mustard (Sysimbrium altissimum), yellow gromwell (Lithospermum incisum) , and two types of milkvetches.
The most numerous wildlfower in this area was thread-leaved phacelia (Phacelia linearis), but there was also silverleaf phacelia (Phacelia hastata) on rocky slopes
This is a hike I do in a cycle of about 5 years since it is a more challenging route. Some video footage is provided here:
2022-05-25/DAS