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McLaughlin Canyon

The girls and I traveled to an agility event Friday, stopping on the way for a hike and then lunch with friends near Tonasket. It was a perfect spring day. Sunny and warm. At the start of the hike it was still frozen in the shadows but that changed while we were out. A creek tumbled down the canyon wall disappearing into the ground before it got to the canyon floor. Buttercups were blooming. Canyon Wrens were singing. A Golden Eagle stirred up all the Rock Pigeons. A fine outing.

We saw or heard these birds: Chukar, Golden Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Rock Pigeon, Northern Flicker, Say’s Phoebe, Black-billed Magpie, Common Raven, Canyon Wren, American Robin, Song Sparrow, Western Meadowlark. There were also lots of marmots.

Such interesting geology
Water in an otherwise dry place
According to this sign, much of the trail is on private land.
Buttercups
Sky wrestled with a sagebrush. She lost
Waited for someone to pop out of the hole but no luck.

Buttercups For My Birthday

When your birthday is on the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring, you might have some expectations for the day. I got it in my head that I wanted to see sagebrush buttercups – one of the first wildflowers that shows up in our shrub-steppe habitats. Well never mind that here at our house, there is still over a foot of snow on the ground. Wet, rotten, sloppy snow. Spring birds like bluebirds, phoebes, juncos and others have arrived so it does sound like spring but right now as I type this, it is snowing. Again. I keep thinking I am done with winter but it’s clearly not done with me.

So if I wanted to see buttercups, I was going to have go somewhere else. I went east and north to McLaughlin Canyon, near Tonasket. The day started out sunny but was soon overcast and breezy and fairly cold at 37° Fahrenheit. Good walking weather. There were a few patches of snow and there was lots of water everywhere. I imagine in the summer this place is very dry and full of rattlesnakes so this was a good time to visit. Melting snow sent cascades of water over the cliff faces and in the shady spots, the rocks and shrubs were covered with ice.

Shortly after I arrived I heard the wonderful song of the Canyon Wren! Have you heard them? Listen here. I heard several others while I walked. The trail starts in a narrow section of the canyon and all that water found its way to the path so it was a bit of a struggle to keep my feet dry. I was somewhat dismayed by all the weeds. This area burned in 2015 when much of Okanogan County was on fire and its recovery is slow. I did see that some pine trees have been recently planted so hopefully they will grow quickly and hold the ground in place during spring flooding.

I walked til I was overlooking the bottom of the canyon and the Okanogan River. Still no buttercups. The hill below me was steep and not appealing for walking but it did look warmer and dryer than the ground I’d been walking on. I used my binoculars to scan the hillside and sure enough, a good two hundred feet below me, I saw the bright yellow color of the buttercups. I found them. It was worth the climb down and back up.

The dogs had great fun exploring a new place and so did I. We were all grateful to be walking on dirt again.

Afterwards, we drove down valley and managed to find some Sandhill Cranes in the snow. It is the time of year when they migrate through this region but most years, the lakes and ponds are thawed and the ground is mostly snow-free. I imagine they are having trouble finding enough food to eat.

And here at home today it is still snowing. Big, fat, fluffy flakes. Winter needs a new calendar.

Public lands
See that dark spot just above the pine cone in the lower right? That’s a spring. Fresh water coming out of the ground.
The narrow part of the canyon
Newly planted pine tree
Not all the trees burned
Luna collected stuff in her fur
Buttercups
The buttercups were down below those two burned tree trunks
Could you two help me here?
Of several attempts, this was the best one.
This is rock cress which has white flowers later in the spring. Right now it has a yellow fungus on it that usually doesn’t kill the plant.
Lots of rock outcroppings
How did this get here?
Oh yeah, the county road switches back up there. Someone dumped a load of household trash into the canyon. Sad.
Enormous rocks that have fallen from the canyon walls
Sandhill Cranes.

Late Afternoon Light

At this time of year, late afternoon is 3:00 p.m. Hardly seems right. With the low angle of the sun, it lasts a while making for some good photo opportunities depending on the location. Yesterday my friend and I went birding to the Okanogan and while we dipped on our target wintering species, at the end of the day we did find a new place to explore – McLaughlin Canyon. Ken’s told me about it in the past, insisting that it’s a place I’d like and of course, he was right. We stumbled upon it from the east, coming from Tunk Valley, going up and over a divide and then dropping into this amazing rock walled chasm. The late afternoon light colored the rock walls with oranges and yellows, shadowed by burnt snags from wildfires in the not too distant past. A tiny Canyon Wren completed the scene.

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