Tom McCall Preserve, June 12, 2024
A Nature Conservancy property, Tom McCall Preserve has two distinct sections: Rowena Plateau and Tom McCall Point. There are trails in both sections and today I hiked up towards McCall Point. Often windy on the Preserve, today was no exception, but when you hike up the trail to McCall Point, some of the wind dissipates, not all of it, but some. One of the big attractions here are the vast fields of Carey’s Balsamroot. They usually bloom earlier than June and they are fading away now. But there are huge numbers and fields full of other wildflowers: bachelor buttons and woolly vetch color the hillsides with rich blues and purples, instead of the yellows of the balsamroot. There are areas of oak savannah and grassy meadows and rocky soil all around. Finding new wildflowers is still a thrill and today I came upon two new ones: babystars and bearded hawksbeard. There were still yarrows in bloom as well as ookow and Oregon sunshine. I came across one area where honeysuckles were in bloom, and also ocean spray, heartleaf buckwheat and lots of rabbit-foot clover lower on the plateau just before you start climbing up the trail. Today was also unusual in that I saw two snakes on the trail: both were too quick for me to get full shots of them, hence both only show bodies and no heads: a gopher snake and a small western rattlesnake.
Field of Carey’s balsamroot, taken on Mother’s Day weekend this year
Babystars, a very small plant that grows low to the ground
Honeysuckle
Bearded Hawksbeard
Notice the rattle on the tail, this one was about two and a half feet long
Rabbit-foot Clover
Heartleaf Buckwheat with bachelor buttons flanking it
Gopher snake
Ookow
Bachelor Button
Corncockle, not a native, found in one area about a mile and a half up the trail
