Canyon Creek Meadows 6/29 Wow!

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pdxgene
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Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Canyon Creek Meadows 6/29 Wow!

Post by pdxgene » June 29th, 2015, 6:35 pm

This is another of those 'go now' type of things that are way off on timing this year. Joan and I also did this hike in late July of 2013 and the flowers are at least a week farther along than then. The lower meadow is fading fast except near what little water is running. Monday is a great hike day, we saw no one on the trail going in until the meadow junction and only one pair coming out. We had the upper meadow to ourselves for two hours.. :D
Most of the people we saw were from the meadow junction and up to, but not into, the meadow. We also went out and back on the Wasco Lake side which though longer is easier and quicker and the main goal was to try and get to the meadow early. Light on 3FJ starts getting worse once you hit noonish.
So the long photo show starts at the loop junction in the lower meadow at just over 5,500'..
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Paintbrush in lower meadow..
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Small creek flower bed..
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Heading up the hill to the main goal..
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Lupine just everywhere and it gets even better from here..
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More paintbrush..
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Getting closer to the upper meadow and Three Fingered Jack..
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Heading down the path into the upper meadow greeted by paintbrush..
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And a few lupine..
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Lupine and Three Fingered Jack.. It was sweet to get the blue sky back today.. :D
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There were multiple rockfalls while we were there in the general area of the trail up the ridge.. Another good reason to stay safely amongst the flowers.. :)
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More from the upper meadow..
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Lots of these guys flitting about the flowers.. Hoffmann's Checkerspot here..
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Upper meadow paintbrush and lupine..
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And others along with them..
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Creekside in the back of the upper meadow where we had lunch..
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Flowers just everywhere..
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Hiding in the lupine..
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There are a number of dry creek beds and a couple narrow paths providing routes thru the meadow..
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Joan back in the meadow..
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Some more flowers. There were kind of a lot of them... :lol:
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Did I mention now would be a decent time to go...
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Some of the colors of Three Fingered Jack..
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So there was a flower or two.. :P
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3FJ and the lupine.. You can see the afternoon shadows starting to cover the mountain..
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Just like the old Beatles song, 'Lupine Fields Forever' (it was a b-side cut to the more familiar Strawberry.. :P )
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The paintbrush patch that signals time to climb out of the meadow and head back down..
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Someone else had just entered the meadow a minute or three before we started to climb back out. Pretty good timing I'd say..
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Rock patterns and colors..
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More wildlife.. Great Basin Fritillary resting..
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Little creekside meadow..
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A lighter more orangy paintbrush and larkspur..
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And the more red version..
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Flowers along the drying creek bed habitats..
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One more butterfly..
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Some mountains coming out on the trail.. this would be Mt Jefferson..
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And more off in the distance the other way, North and Middle Sister and Broken Top..
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Finishing off where we started at Jack Lake..
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Slide show here... http://picasaweb.google.com/pdxgene/CanyonCreekMeadows1
What a day! I realllllly want to thank our 'Get Out Backpacking' guy for the current conditions and saving me from making a three hour drive each way in a couple weeks only to be waaay too late. :)
With the warm forecast and very little water, if you want to see this (and except 1 or 2 these are completely unedited), go soon!
Last edited by pdxgene on June 30th, 2015, 5:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

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romann
Posts: 2417
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: Vancouver, WA

Re: Canyon Creek Meadows 6/29 Wow!

Post by romann » June 29th, 2015, 7:41 pm

Wow - spectacular place Gene, great pictures.

And so true about hiking on Monday :lol:

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Waffle Stomper
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Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: Canyon Creek Meadows 6/29 Wow!

Post by Waffle Stomper » June 29th, 2015, 7:44 pm

What an amazing hike. Beautiful photos.
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." - John Muir

pdxgene
Posts: 5073
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: Canyon Creek Meadows 6/29 Wow!

Post by pdxgene » June 29th, 2015, 8:21 pm

Thanx... :) It was just amazing up there. And having no one else in that upper meadow for two full hours with the blue sky and all the flowers... It was hard to leave..

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funhog
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Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: Canyon Creek Meadows 6/29 Wow!

Post by funhog » June 29th, 2015, 9:18 pm

These photos are breathtaking! I am going to try to get there by the end of the week. Thanks for the heads up!

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woodswalker
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Joined: November 25th, 2012, 4:51 pm

Re: Canyon Creek Meadows 6/29 Wow!

Post by woodswalker » June 30th, 2015, 6:07 am

Simply incredible. All the pics are great, but I especially love the blue butterflies with the rusty orange rocks.
I mostly hike on Mondays. It's the best. I've been planning to go all week, but the heat is holding me back.
Really wonderful report.
Woodswalker

CuriousGorge
Posts: 18
Joined: October 26th, 2009, 8:59 pm

Re: Canyon Creek Meadows 6/29 Wow!

Post by CuriousGorge » June 30th, 2015, 6:14 am

Great Pix Gene---you really nailed it! Thx for the head's up! cheers, scott

pdxgene
Posts: 5073
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: Canyon Creek Meadows 6/29 Wow!

Post by pdxgene » June 30th, 2015, 6:54 am

Hey, thanks Scott (that little yellow Bend hiking guide book came along.. :) ) and everyone else... I hope you can get up there and see it..

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