Tumwater Botanical Area — Sunday, Jun. 7, 2020

With the spring wildflower season rapidly drawing to a close at low elevation, I was hoping to find a few more new species on my "must-see" list of wildflowers, this time on Tumwater Mountain.  In addition to the beautiful, but more widespread lupines, balsamroot, phlox and buckwheats, Tumwater has some rare ones. The UW Herbarium has in its collection a number of specimens of at least five different rare species from this mountain.  One of them is showy stickseed (Hackelia venusta), which somewhat resembles a very large white forget-me-not.  The story goes that one day, a group of graduate students went collecting plants for the introductory botany lab at the University of Washington and unknowingly wiped out the roadside population of this plant along SR 2 at the base of Tumwater Mountain.  While I cannot swear that there are no plants left along the highway, every time I have stopped to examine the white flowers along the roadside, they are always buckwheat, phlox, yarrow or spiraea.  Several years ago, I parked alongside the highway, climbed straight up to the top, came down the other side, walked through Leavenworth and back along the highway in search of this and several other rare species (including wild peonies and several orchids). I had a great day, but found none of the species I was looking for.  Part of the way up I found a trail, with switchbacks, but because I did a loop trip, I never found out where it began.  In spite of stopping at every pull-out along that highway at the base of Tumwater Mt. (there are at least 18), I have not found it since.  It did not go all the way to the top, but it went up a good bit of the climb.  This is by way of background.

According to the WTA website, the Tumwater Botanical Area "trail" starts at FR 7903.  However at this time there is a hand-written sign at the gate that says the Tumwater Botanical Area is not here, but at mile post 96.  I believed this sign, because according to my Green Trails map, the actual botanical reserve boundaries do not intersect with FR 7903 or those roads that branch off from it.  Nevertheless, I thought it was still worth exploring.  While I was sitting at the gate keying out a small, inconspicuous flower I found there, a truck pulled up, opened the gate and drove on.  The gate is not locked and the driver apparently already knew that.  This road has been recently bulldozed, which has me a little worried.  Access to the wild lands in most of the canyons in the area is blocked by private property-no trespassing signs.  Why else would a closed road be improved unless they were planning some development or logging in the area?  The area is not protected.  FR 7903 has pretty good floral diversity.  There's an especially nice display of orange honeysuckle in bloom.  But I did not find exactly what I was looking for and turned around at about three miles.  On the way down, I found a friendly Western Yellowbelly Racer.  Next stop, mile post 96.

The trail at mile post 96 is exactly at the turn-out at MP 96, not the one a little farther on with the Port-a-Potty that goes to Castle Rock.  The start is a little hard to find, to the left side of the pull-out.  I was hoping this was the beginning of the trail I had found a few years earlier.  Unfortunately, like the one at Castle Rock, this is a climber's trail that dead-ends at a cliff.  I tried to continue on up from there off-trail, but after going up a little ways, it was clear this was not feasible.  I decided to go back down to skirt the rock formation that was blocking the way. I met two young women who were also looking for the Tumwater Botanical Area trail and found the sign directing them to MP 96. 

I found a way up to the right of the climbing rock and continued beyond up another 1500' vertical elevation before turning around because I was running out of time.  This is a truly spectacular climb not only because there is a continuous view of the canyon itself, but also because of the many interesting rock formations along the way.  The roar of the Wenatchee River drowns out the busy highway below and one always feels as if one is in a wild place.  It is sad there is no trail all the way up out of Tumwater Canyon, because this is the most scenic route up to the highlands in the Leavenworth area, already way over-crowded.  The route I took is only for those comfortable with off-trail travel, but it actually feels safer than some trails.  I refer to those really steep trails with a hardpan topped by a thin layer of sand or gravel.  The ones where, on the downhill, your feet are constantly threatening to slip out from underneath and send you flying down on your butt.  The soil on the mountain is soft and loose, permitting you to dig in your heels and plunge step down the steep slope.  The slope is open with few downed trees.  There is one caveat.  The area within three hundred vertical feet of the road is well-guarded by cliffs, so it is important to come down the same way you go up in order to avoid getting cliffed-out.  I found a new species of broomrape on the slope, which parasitizes buckwheats, but not my target species.  There are lots of buckwheat and some lupines in bloom up there, but many species are finishing up for the season.  If you get up high enough, there is Tweedy's lewisia. 

I thought I'd try one more place on Tumwater Mountain before giving up for this year.  This time I tried FR 7701 on the back side of Tumwater Mountain.  Being a Sunday, there was a fair amount of road traffic up the mountain, mainly of people with bicycles, but, mercifully, no motorbikes.  This is definitely an easier way up the mountain, but shaded with few views until you get near the top.  The road branches several times, take two lefts to get to the summit.  Many flowers are at the end of their flowering season, but there is some Tweedy's lewisia and lots of lupine still in bloom.  I found many spotted coralroot orchids along the road and one striped coralroot. I also found one of my target species, two phantom orchids, on a spur off the main route.  Unfortunately, they were still immature and not blooming yet.  There is a rough trail along the ridge of Tumwater which I did not have time to explore.  The view at the top is fantastic.

I still want to find those other plants, so I guess next year I've got another off-trail route to do on another part of the mountain.