Camassia Nature Preserve, 4/20/2026
After many months (ten to be exact) I was able to hobble out again on a trail. Camassia Nature Preserve is located in an urban area of West Linn, Oregon, yet is wild and full of wildflowers at this time of year. I have been in a struggle, learning how to walk again after an injury, and this time out was both exhilarating and exhausting. But being out was the best therapy for me.
Camassia is in a varied landscape; there are oak savannas, forests of fir and oak and maple, so there is a wide variety of wildflowers here.
There were masses of blue camas along with rosy plectritis in the oak savannas. The madrones were in flower, as were the maples.
Click on any photo to enlarge it.
The savanna areas were filled with blue camas, and the ocassional rare white camas.
Oregon Saxifrage were popping up in the damp savannas. These are taller than the western or other saxifrages.
Though these lovely wildflowers were getting near the end of their blooming time, the Oregon Fawn Lilies were in the forested areas along the main loop trail, and the pond spur trail.
The area has patches of Pacific Madrones that are in flower right now. The bark exfoliates showing the red skin that is distinctive of the madrone.
We’re all familiar with the western trillium that grows all around the Pacific Northwest, but the giant white trillium is only found on the west side of the Cascade Mountains. The flower has three petals and three sepals, like the white trillium, but these are erect rather the spread out and flat, and the leaves are mottled, making it easy to identify this wildflower.
