Mountain Plants of the Western Cascades

Last July, I discovered an awesome new spot in the Calapooyas, Potter Mountain (see Natural Rock Garden at Potter Mountain). Since I’d missed the early bloom, it was high on my list of sites to revisit this year. On Sunday, May 31, I returned to see what else might be up there. Staley Creek Road 2134 is usually in good shape, but it did require moving a few small rocks. Still I got up there no trouble (and left it a little clearer for my next trip up). The day was rather overcast but the clouds came in waves, so I did get some sun off and on.

Cutleaf daisy (Erigeron compositus) growing right on the rocky, spine of the ridge. Diamond Peak can be seen to the east.

Upon reaching the rocky spine, I was thrilled to see the cutleaf daisy (Erigeron compositus) I had found last year was coming into bloom. It’s so hard to guess the timing of plants this year, but this was just when I wanted to get here. The flowers turned out to be fairly typical, looking much like they do on Eagles Rest. The view was still quite spectacular with Diamond Peak to the east and Thielsen and Bailey to the south still showing quite a bit of snow (though much less than would be expected in late May). It was quite windy on the west side of the ridge, but all I had to do was duck down below the tops of the rocks to get out of the wind to take photos. Unfortunately, mosquitoes were out in numbers as they had been on my previous outing a few miles to the west at Loletta Lakes. They hardly bit me, but it is still annoying having them in your face, whining in your ears, and flying in front of the camera all the time, so sometimes I went up to the ridge into the wind to get some relief from them. Trying to find a balance between the bugs and the wind wasn’t easy, but once I got into my botanizing, I didn’t notice either as much.

A gorgeous patch of Mahala mat (Ceanothus prostratus) was in perfect bloom along the road. Through the trees, you can see the massive, rocky, west face of Potter Mountain a third of a mile away.

Drummond’s anemone (Anemone drummondii) growing in the wonderful shaley rocks on the ridge.

It’s more walkable and less scary on the east-facing side of the ridge, so I explored that side more carefully. I was able to relocate the small area where I had seen Drummond’s anemone (Anemone drummondii) leaves last year and was very pleased to see those, too, were in bloom. There were only 2 flowers, 1 bud, and about 24 plants, so maybe the population hasn’t been there that long. Nearby Balm Mountain is the only other place I’ve seen this plant in the Western Cascades. I cursed myself after I knocked some of the petals off the first flower trying to tidy up some dead grass for my photo. I still haven’t learned to take several photos before doing that. I had to switch over to the other flower, but I was much more careful not to touch it.

The most predominant plants in flower were pumice sandwort (Eremogone pumicola) and Martindale’s lomatium (Lomatium martindalei). Creamy stonecrop (Sedum oregonense) was abundant as well but not quite in bloom yet. The main rock is going to be spectacular in a few weeks when the plentiful cliff penstemon (Penstemon rupicola) comes into bloom. More frosted paintbrush (Castilleja pruinosa) might be out by then as well. I’m hoping to bring a group of rock gardening friends up there later in the month, so I hope our timing is right for that. With a limited variety of habitat—rocks, rocks, and more rocks!—the number of species is not as great as I typically see, but I was able to add some new species to my initial list, including two snowmelt species just finishing their bloom: steer’s head (Dicentra uniflora) and western springbeauty (Claytonia lanceolata).

The cliffy west side of Potter Mountain drops over 500′. Both cliff penstemon (Penstemon rupicola) and Merriam’s alumroot (Heuchera merriamii) inhabit cracks in the rock.

Spreading phlox (Phlox diffusa) in peak bloom. The two deep yellow flowers are false agoseris (Nothocalais alpestris) closed up for the afternoon.

The night before my trip, I spent some time exploring the area on Google Earth. Another open spot no more than a quarter mile north of the large rock looked accessible. The ridge actually continues on for almost a mile in total, reaching another open rocky area, but I wasn’t so sure whether I could make it that far, as it looked like there was more elevation gain and loss, and it is hard to tell how steep the dips are. After binocular botanizing the scary west side of the huge rock from the north end, I headed off into the woods, trying to follow the narrow ridge to the north. It turned out to be easy to follow, although the I had to climb over a lot of branches and logs. The ridge opened up into a wide gravelly area, and then suddenly I was out on a gravel plateau with a fabulous view to the north. I could see the rocky end of the ridge, looking like more than I wanted to deal with on this trip, and also Dome Rock a little farther north, and the prominent pillars of Youngs Rock and Moon Point about 12 miles away.

It almost looked like it had snowed up there; the ground was covered with gorgeous mats of spreading phlox (Phlox diffusa) in varying shades of pink and white. This was an addition to my list as was the yellow dandelion-like false agoseris (Nothocalais alpestris) popping up among the phlox and some budding up king’s clover (Trifolium kingii var. productum), which grew only on the north slope below the plateau. As flat and open as this spot was, perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised to discover one of those orange-painted triangles that marks a helicopter landing pad. I’ve seen these at Fuji and Coffin mountains. I’ll have to find out if this has been around for a long time or was put into use last year when the Staley Complex Fire broke out a few miles away. There are some wires up on the rocky part of the ridge at the beginning, so there might well have been a lookout up here at some time.

Looking north toward Dome Rock from the phlox-covered plateau. The landing marker can just be seen between the two clumps of hemlocks. The near rocky area to the left is part of the same ridge and ought to be reachable by heading down into the woods to the left, but I didn’t have enough gumption to try to get there on this trip. Maybe next time….

Since it wasn’t even 4pm when I got back to my car, I decided to drive toward Balm Mountain, just a few miles to the west, to look for the Cascade endemic Crater Lake currant (Ribes erythrocarpum). A number of the common currants were blooming all along the roads (R. viscosissimum, cereum, sanguineum, binominatum, and even one roezlii), so I was pretty sure it would also be flowering. I spent a while wandering about a large meadow along Road 2154 just a mile west of the intersection of Staley Creek Road. Not a lot was going on yet in the grassy meadow except the darling elegant cat’s ears (Calochortus elegans), but there were lots of delphiniums and other interesting plants in rocky areas along the edges. The tiny pink Brewer’s monkeyflower (Erythranthe [Mimulus] breweri) was just appearing in damp bare spots between shrubs, and there were lots of other tiny annuals coming along.

The beautiful orange color of Crater Lake currant flowers is unusual in our flora. A close look reveals the burnt orange flowers are highly speckled with red. The petals are much smaller than the sepals. The flowers and leaves are covered with glands, presumably the source of the plant’s strong fragrance.

I found some nice patches of Crater Lake currant in the woods at the edge of the meadow and in spots along the road. As close as I was to Balm Mountain, I figured I’d drive the mile and a half or so of Road 236 to the north end of the mountain. There’s lots of the currant right at the beginning of the old trail to the lookout as well as in wooded spots along the ridge. I made it to another good patch along the road that I remembered seeing in the past and stopped to take more photos. But just around the corner, some very unkind person (no swearing on my blog!) had piled rocks up in long lines paralleling the road. I couldn’t travel any farther without going over them and trashing my vehicle or spending an hour moving large, heavy rocks, so I called it a day. It was not the way I wanted to end my otherwise great outing. Why are some people so inconsiderate and just downright mean?!

One Response to “Return to Potter Mountain”