Back from down under ( any updates on Dalles Mountain and or Woodland tulips)

Hey Guys and Gals,

I am back from down under where the weather to have been a bit warmer even if it was supposed to be late fall down there. Home after about 26 hours of flying from Tasmania to Sydney and home and man I was surprised to see snow so low in the Cascades as we flew home from Seattle. Anyway, glad to be back, lots of images to sort through and lots of images to catch up on here but I hope I can catch some Z's tonight as the time difference was about 17 hours.

If anybody has updates on the Rowena Plateau and Dalles Mountain I would appreciate a note here!

Thanks

Mike

Welcome back. I was at the Dalles Mountain Ranch on Saturday. The Balsamroot was fairly done, at least up high. It looked like it caught a freeze or something. The Lupine wasn't very good either. It's still a ways out up high. There is one area at the beginning by the corral that has a bit of both Balsamroot and Lupine and I saw a photographer there but it didn't seem worth the drive to me. Hood River, on the other hand looked great. The whole valley was full of blooming pear trees. Very nice. Best of success.

I spent the last two weekends up there, but did mostly macro work, since there was little wind last weekend. Rowena Plateau has about another week to go at least. The Dalles Mt Ranch has bloomed a bit up top, but the lower elevations have yet to show. Down near the river everything is blooming as normal. The Camas and Death Camas are just popping up, lupine in some places- but not others, same with the balsamroot, some desert parsley still going strong, buckwheat and buttercups are in bloom, so are the chocolate lilies and big head clover. The poppies are just beginning to pop in some areas too. There are many more flowers in bloom, but so far there hasn't been the wow factor like in past years. Hopefully that is on the way.

David M. Cobb

One more thing...I pulled off my first wood tick, so the season must be here.

David M. Cobb

I spent the weekend prowling that area Mike (sorry I missed you David and Larry), and echo the above. There were lots of flowers both in the gorge and out in the Columbia Hills. I was hoping for the carpets of flowers that DMR is famous for (I want to take a shot like this one I took in 2006), but with better lighting), but didn't find much yet.

In patches, the lupine is very good down low (and very lush this year), but a lot of what's currently blooming is on private property. There is a great ravine full of the tall yellow desert-parsley a mile or two west of the ranch buildings. As noted above, the DMR flowers seem a little different than what I have seen in the past with the exposed, mid-elevation, slopes already peaking, the lower elevation hills around the ranch buildings still a week or two from peaking, and the plants up at the pass not even close. The balsamroot seems a bit stunted this year, but I think the lupine has great potential. I hope to go back the weekend of the 10th.

Rowena crest is still very slow on top, but down below the crest has some good patches.

I found two ticks crawling on me, and two on the dog, so David's heads up is a good one.