Tom McCall Preserve, May 30, 2025

It was a glad case of the blues!! Such blues; but no sadness on this last Friday of May: it was a sunny day with no wind. It was a hot day, in the high 80s, but I never really felt it was too hot to continue hiking up to McCall Point.

We usually associate this trail and the area with the phenomenal displays of arrowleaf and Carey’s balsamroot, showing more yellow than the sun sometimes. But these are just about all gone; I found a few scattered around as I hiked up the trail from the parking area sign to the top of McCall Point.

But mostly there were the blues.

The meadows on the approach were filled with bachelor’s buttons. At times the fields only showed blue. But there were other blue flowers also.

There were lots of white stemmed frasera, though I have never seen one with a white stem, they are a pale green. But what’s in a name?

Blue flax found near the top of the trail. McCall Peak is 1722 feet in elevation, and you start at about 700 feet, thus the 1000 feet gain is done in about a mile and a half: somewhat steep. Sort of hard work on a hot day.

I found some of these little beauties near a quarter mile in, but only in one location. There were a few plants that are quite eye catching because of their color in the browning grassses. This is a four spot or wine cup clarkia.

A Nootka rose with a visitor.

Today was a great hike on a great day, made better by the fact that this was the first hike in a long time that my back did not bother me at all for the entire 3.7 mile hike. Yahoo!!!!!