Wildflowers

This was my day off – my “weekends” will be Monday-Tuesday usually. It was also Dad’s last day – he's planning to head back toward home, stopping at various places along the way. We had agreed to meet for a hike and a picnic before he left.

We met first at the East Rim Overlook, which is actually right near my house! A little side road takes you to a parking lot with a very short paved path to the edge of the gorge of the Big South Fork River. Dad had walked there once already, and had noticed that the woods there were full of bushes that he realized were mountain laurel, about to bloom! I was very excited about this – I’ve only seen mountain laurel one time, on a trip to North Carolina by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway when I was little.

The bushes here are only in bud – there were a few clusters of buds that were just starting to open, but most of them were only just turning pink. So that is something to look forward to – and since it’s so close to my house, on the way home in fact, it will be easy to keep checking and watch the progress of the flowers!

The view of the gorge was lovely as well! It’s amazing to see how rounded the hills are around this steep-cut gorge. It’s all a giant plateau that’s had channels worn down through the sandstone, so all the hills are the same height as you look out.

There were some bluets blooming right next to the overlook platform, mixed with a few little yellow stargrass flowers. And blueberries – green for now, but they’ll be ripe before you know it! And probably won’t last long in that area, either..

The dogwood trees are beginning to fade.

Something has been eating tulip poplar leaves!

Those bigger bushes are mountain laurel.

Some of the laurel buds were really closed up tight!

These are a little closer to opening.

I'm looking forward to these!

The gorge of the Big South Fork River.

This is from a small tree next to the overlook. Whatever it is, it's going to bloom soon!

Dad took this one for me. When you're the photographer you seldom turn up in any photos!



Bluets and stargrass.

There is a very healthy population of poison ivy in this area - that's what's growing on the tree here. It's also growing all over the forest floor - it can be a vine, small plant or even grow into a bush!

After we were done with that short walk, we drove down into the gorge, to the Leatherwood Ford picnic area. Dad had walked on the boardwalk near the river there on our first day. I wanted to walk on the Angel Falls Rapids trail, because Bill had said that was a good place to see wildflowers. In fact, one of the maps in the park newspaper actually has a little flower icon at that spot! And it was true – just at the parking lot we saw several very pretty flowers.

The trail is basically an old gravel road that follows the river downstream. Mostly there was a steep hillside with trees between us and the water, but we got some glimpses here and there. We weren’t planning to walk the entire two miles to the end and back, but it worked out really well to just walk partway and then turn around. It took us a while even to get that far, with both of us stopping to take photos!

When we finally turned around and started heading back out, we noticed a few flowers we hadn’t seen going the other way. Eventually we got back to the trailhead, and went down some stairs to a beach near the water. There were lots of signs of high water – washed-out roots, debris washed up well along the shoreline. But there was still plenty of life – including a big centipede! He wasn’t quite sure where he was going…

We had our picnic, and I used the flower books I had borrowed to look up the ones we’d seen – although I ended up running down the batteries of my camera pretty badly. Dad finally headed out, and I sat there for just a few more minutes finishing up. Then I headed into town, to find the library and get a few groceries.

Fire pink

Beaked violet

Rhododendron

Sweet shrub

Purple wakerobin – trillium erectum

Hairy buttercup

Jack-in-the-pulpit

More trillium erectum  - see how it stands up?

Solomon’s seal

This is a Mystery Orchid which I have not yet identified. It's always a real thrill to see an orchid growing in the wild!

Crested dwarf iris

These are maidenhair ferns - a circle of fronds growing out from a central stalk.

Dad just had to climb up and check out the hole in the rocks. There wasn't much to it.

Yellow trillium

Looking over toward another big rock overhang on the right, with a stream flowing down in the middle of the picture. A lot of rhododendron bushes here - it'll be very pretty soon!

Wood betony, or Lousewort

This orchid I did identify: Showy Orchis.

Wild Geranium

And once again, I had to stop and document an instance of a Tree Eating A Rock.

Carolina Vetch

Here's another mystery. I need to find out what plant makes this neat circle of leaves!

This fluffy white flower is False Solomon's Seal, very familiar from last summer.

Whereas this fluffy white flower is actually called "foamflower"!

Blue phlox

Wild stonecrop - this was growing on the rocks. It's very small.

Now, this fluffy white flower is Baneberry, AKA Doll's-Eyes.

Meadow parsnip - hopefully not as toxic as the wild parsnip that is a problem at Pictured Rocks.

Huger’s trillium - very closely related to the yellow ones. They looked identical except for color.

Here's where we went down by the river. This tree presents a nice exhibit of where the ground used to be, and now just the roots remain.

This was a pretty good-sized centipede!

This bush was nearly done blooming. I thought I looked it up but now I can't remember what it's called!

Looking downstream. We had walked as far as that big rock in the middle, and then just a bit further.

Looking upstream. Those trees are hanging on tight!

That black stuff is bits of coal that washed up with the other gravel and sand. There are seams of coal here, and there used to be mining in the area, but it was not a big seam.

Downstream again - noticing how the sand only piles up further from the water. Right by the edge, where the water rises more often, it's just rock, with the sand all swept away.

I noticed this by the picnic table just after Dad left! It's a shrub, and I haven't ID'd it yet - those green flowers were very distinctive, if tiny.

There were a lot of flowers - I wasn't able to show all of them. Here's the full list.

Daisy fleabane

Lyre-leaved sage

Fire pink

Rhododendron

Beaked violet, sweet white violet

Yellow trillium/Huger’s trillium

Purple wakerobin – trillium erectum

Foam flower

Sweet shrub

Wood anemone

Solomon’s seal

Hairy buttercup

Blue phlox

Jack-in-the-pulpit

Mystery orchid – big leaves, many flowers on stalk

Golden ragwort

Crested dwarf iris

Maidenhair fern

Wild geranium

Lousewort

Showy orchis

False Solomon’s seal

Carolina vetch

Wood betony

Wild stonecrop

Baneberry

Meadow parsnip

Mystery shrub
Mystery shrub