Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area

What better to do than hike in tick and rattlesnake infested desert on a Friday the 13th? The wind, as it almost always does was blowing today, but the sun was shining through a thin layer of clouds. I didn’t follow the route in the Bauer/Nelson book but generally hiked on and off the closed roads to the top of Whiskey Dick Ridge. For those who enjoy wildflower hikes now is the time to hike this area. The balsamroot may be a few days past peak, but there are a good variety hybrids, more here than I have seen in other areas. The south slopes of Whiskey Dick Ridge have the best bloom. I noticed the many of the lower elevation stony ground lupine did not bloom , but most plants are blooming near the ridge top. Some of the other lupines are just beginning to bloom. For me, blooming Simpson’s or hedgehog cactus is the highlight of hiking in this area, and the cacti are just beginning to bloom. Thompson’s paintbrush, several desert parsleys, several locoweeds, bighead clover (almost gone), several species of phlox, linear-leaf daisy, another daisy, probably cushion daisy or a fleabane, western groundsel, desert or wavyleaf dandelion (Nothocalais troximoides) which has many names, narrow leaf or threadleaf phacelia, puccoon, several species of buckwheat, narrow leaf goldenweed and a number of other plants that I don’t recall or can’t identify right now are also blooming. I saw plenty of ticks, but no snakes. If you just walk the roads you will avoid most of the ticks. I enjoyed a couple of horned lizards, an assortment of birds, but no larger wildlife. I heard a coyote howling first thing in the morning. Although there was a pickup with a camper and ATV’s at about the same location I parked (1/2 mile off the Vantage Highway), I didn’t see anyone else all day. Other than the wind, it was a beautiful, warm day.