Early Spring inspiration walks in Columbia County, near my home, off Highway 30, north of Portland.

Update Feb 2021: This area, now colloquially called Liberty Hill Camas Bluff, is under threat from gravel mining. The permit application is named Knife River Watters Quarry Expansion Project. To help, visit Friends of Liberty Hill, or our Facebook page.

On a rocky bluff above St Helens, OR, there are vernal springs where native wetland and prairie wildflowers bloom in the seeps and fields, in very thin soil.  Their tiny root zones survive on top of otherwise solid basalt, by going dormant in summer.  Early- to mid-spring is the best time to view the burst of flowers here.

Above: Camas Lily, Rosy Plectritis, and yellow Monkeyflower

This bluff and informal trail has no name, but I think of it as the Camassia Bluff, for its fields of Camassia quamash (Camas Lily) that bloom in profusion, late April to early May (depending on the year).

Above: Camassia quamash, Common Camas Lily

The trail winds along the upper bluff.  It is a road, but I have never seen vehicles on it.  The soils are so thin over the basalt ground that it takes very little to create vehicle tracks here, rutting and destroying the meadow plants.  Native Oregon white oak prairie wildflowers such as these are now rare in the Willamette Valley.  I hope never to see a vehicle here.   

Thanks for "walking" with me on my first blog post!  It all feels quite rough around the edges. I shall endeavor to feature more nature and inspiration for gardens in the weeks to come.

Photography © Alyse Lansing, 2015. All rights reserved.