Each day I am out hiking, running, paddling, and exploring. As I travel I watch for flowering plants. The wildflowers shared here are from two outings a few days apart. On a rainy day, I ran and fast-hiked the Bunker Road Trails. A few days later I traveled to Tunkwa Lake to paddle the shoreline of the … Continue reading →
I was first on the Sun Peaks chairlift to hike from mid-station to the top of Tod Mountain. The hike was in dry conditions for much of the route, but it was wet or snowy at the upper end. Wildflowers were abundant in the subalpine zone and the whole route had some seasonal wildflowers emerging or in bloom. Featured … Continue reading →
On a mid-spring day, I drove up the old bumpy road from the highway up to Pat Lake in the Six Mile Hills. i paddled around the lake twice, once in each direction, the secured the boat before I hiked around the lake, following faint trails on grassland slopes above the lakeshore. I stopped to observe blackbirds, wrens, … Continue reading →
We hiked a series of trails in the Lundbom Grasslands in the hills southeast of Merritt in mid-June. For over 3 hours, we hiked through open grasslands, open forests, aspen groves, glades, dales, and over ridges. The south-facing slopes were dry and only grasses and a few summer-flowering plants were spotted. On north-facing slopes, wildflowers had emerged over … Continue reading →
We traveled to Shuswap Lake to hike some of the trails in Herald Provincial Park. We started by hiking into Margaret Falls, then we did a loop route up the east side of Reinecker Creek, then back on the west side to the start. On the south side of the slopes is open forest with gravelly soils. As we … Continue reading →
Mara Meadows Provincial Park is an ecological reserve “which contains unique calcareous fen ecosystem with diverse flora including rare orchids.” Access is difficult. We can drive back roads on the west side or on the south side, but there are no trailheads, no clear trails, and all routes require some bushwhacking. We tried two routes on the northwest … Continue reading →
On a warm June morning I hiked through the hills on the western edge of Kenna Cartwright Park, including some off-trail routes across the south-facing slopes. The goal was to hike a known route where blazing stars (Mentzelia laevicaulis) bloom in June and July. This is an area I have visited in past years and I was not … Continue reading →
On a warm spring day I paddled around Stake Lake twice, then hiked on the trails around the lake for a two hour outing. While hiking, I stopped to enjoy south of the wildflowers and flowering shrubs along the way. Shared here are: Robbin’s milkvetch (Astralagus robinsii) Drummond’s rockcress (Boechera stricta) harsh paintbrush (Castilleja hispida) heart-leaved arnica (Arnica … Continue reading →
A PDF document written by Paul Handford can be found at a page on this website: Flowering Plants of the Kamloops Area There is a download link on the page for anyone who wants their own copy of this PDF document.
On a sunny early June day I hiked up Buse Hill, then along the rim and back through open forest and grassland slopes. Wildflowers were in bloom, pollinators were out, birds were calling, and the hills were quiet on a weekday morning. The hike was under 2 hours and had many fine views along the rim of the cliffs. … Continue reading →
