Grassy Knoll Trail, May 4, 2026

One of the things I love about the Grassy Knoll trail, is just getting there. It’s about 13 miles (3.5 miles of which at the beginning are paved), of rough gravel and hard packed dirt and rock road. If it has rained, there will be some deep puddles, so be prepared. The drive up goes through forest, where, if you are lucky, you can see one section of hillside with lots of Phantom Orchids. This trip, I was not quite so lucky (it’s too early for them), but I did get to see three stalks of Coralroot. There is also a small waterfall and a hillside with yellow monkeyflowers.

And once you are at the parking area, the trail begins in a meadow that goes up hill for about a quarter of a mile, then goes into the forest, goes up to a few rocky outcroppings, drops down through the forest again, then up a sloping hillside to the Knoll itself.

In my rather limited state these days, I was able to make it up the slope of the meadow, and got into the forest for a hundred feet or so, before my legs began to tremble and I sat for a bit on a log.

The flowers on the meadow were in bloom, but I think that up higher it is not their time yet.

Along the roadside on the drive up, there were large patches of Vanilla Leaf in bloom.

The Chocolate or Checker Lilies were past their prime, and there were only a few along this part of the trail.

The meadow was pretty filled up with Spreading Phlox. Notice the leaves; they are a differentiator between types of Phlox.

There were also quite a lot of Small-Flowered Blue-Eyed Mary in the meadow area. This plant was taller than most of the others, which were lower to the ground.

And the Nuttall’s Larkspur were plentiful also. The leaves of this wildflower are the key to it’s identification. They are narrower than other Larkspurs.