Always interested in what's left of our remaining native ecosystems we decided to check out the Mima Mounds prairie south of Olympia, this despite the fact that it was raining buckets almost all the way past Olympia.To get there: take exit 95, turn west towards Littlerock, then follow directions. By the time we arrived at the Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve the rain had almost stopped. Even though the trail is only 1/2 mile, the discussions about the various theories to what originally might have led to these mounds (posted at the Interpretative Center) made this a very informative Saturday. We didn't see any of the 18 specimens of butterflies allegedly at home at these natural prairie remants. The slight rain probably didn't help. On the way home we stopped by at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge: Yellow Warblers, five different kinds of swallows,Cedar Waxwings,Red-winged Blackbirds,just to name a few birds visble on a short stroll.

Always curious about the Mima Mounds, and hoping to put that curiosity behind us, we headed down to see them, about an hour and a half trip from Seattle, at least for me and my pal and our bag of bagels. From the town of Littlerock we followed the signs to the preserve easily, a turn here, a turn there, and boom, the small parking lot in mounded forest. Alas--gunfire. After a lot of it we mumbled, 'must be a firing range nearby.' There is, adjacent the mounds, but a short walk into the open prairie took us out of the loudest echoing and the situation settled and became tolerable. A few families wandered the paved interpretive trail and many seemed curious about birds. Shortly we spotted a nice hawk in the distance and up close, some industrious little capuccino-colored moths. Each hill is more or less a unique combination of the native prairie plants. Dark pools of knickknick appeared every now and then lending drama, as did the gray lichen that seemed to grow on the bare dirt. Buttercup and what I think was camas were in flower, although not abundantly. Lupine poked up infant leaves here and there. According to a trailside sign, the flower show will probably pick up as we get into June and July. Some mounds sported a burned over stump, and some of the western part of the odd little reserve is still struggling with invasive scotch broom (which happened to be in flower.) Broom that has been pulled or burned in the restoration efforts (somebody, please help) can be seen lying or standing in browning groups. Further out on the smaller, unpaved loop trail I really enjoyed the short bluish bunchgrass and wild strawberry rock gardens that covered the mounds there. A blasted Douglas fir stump with old limbs that looked like bull's horns made a nice photo. In the distance are bluish hills and a couple houses, and encroaching fir trees. We wandered back to the car gazing north into intriguing high hills that I now know are part of the Capitol State Forest. Had we a little more time, we would have gone there too. From I-5, exit 95 south of Olympia and west 4+ miles to Littlerock. Follow signs to both Littlerock and the Mounds. The country roads are also a nice designated bike route.