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Wildflowers still late at Dalles Mountain Ranch and Rowena Posted by justpeachy (2008-04-26)

If you're planning on going to Dalles Mountain Ranch or Rowena Plateau tomorrow to see wildflowers, don't bother! Greg and I got up early again this morning and headed out to Dalles Mountain Ranch. A beautiful morning out there, but it's hard to believe that it's been two whole weeks since our last visit. The flowers have made very little progress in those two weeks. At the trailhead, the balsamroot are just barely starting, and there are no lupine blooming. I would guess it'll be a good two weeks before it comes close to looking like this. Same at Rowena Plateau. Balsamroot blooms just getting started. Lots of lupine leaves but no lupine blooms. And to think that on April 30 last year it looked like this: One place we DID see lots of balsamroot - rather unexpectedly - was at Mosier Twin Tunnels. Lots of them in full beautiful bloom right before you get to the tunnels (coming from the east). No lupine yet, though.

Re: Wildflowers still late at Dalles Mountain Ranch and Rowena Posted by jley (2008-04-26)

I was up at DMR today too... Though, I got there later. There were some good patches, but nothing like a usual year. Taking a close look at the flowers, it appears the first blooms suffered some frost damage, and are looking stunted & dried. I talked to a ranger there, and he said it had been quite cold overnight recently. If the weather stays decent over the next week, the plants should fill-out some... though, I don't think it'll quite be all it can be. Maybe I'm wrong though & it'll be amazing in 1-2 weeks? I guess we'll see. It did look like there were some yellow-er patches up high, but I didn't go up there. btw, I talked to the ranger there & he said they were going to have a bit of an event there next weekend, though, now I'm not remembering the details. They had a copy of the "master plan" up on the wall, which among other things included building trails, and renovating the ranch houses for possible use as rentals. (I have my doubts on that one - they'd need a lot of work). He mentioned that a lot of people visit DMR, but don't know what to do when there, as there really isn't an established trail system. It's a great place to just wander the hills cross-country, but I guess a lot of people aren't into that kind of thing.

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