Albion Basin -- 1999

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A beautiful day (although a bit cool) for another of our annual outings to Albion Basin! Ty Harrison was the leader of our little group. He added a great deal to our enjoyment by being able to identify the plants and interpret the environment for us. The flowers were profuse -- especially the sunflowers. Some of the other types were not yet quite at their blooming peak, but we found about two dozen different kinds. Many were familiar to some of us, but it is always a pleasure to review our old acquaintances and to learn about some new ones.
We were not able to hike up through the campground and beyond, as we usually do. The campground was filled up, and the parking lot just below it was also full. We were halted at a secondary parking lot which had not been here last year. It appeared to be normally used for the parking of construction equipment. Much of the terrain in the vicinity has been torn up in order to install snow making machines. (Aahh, progress!) The hillside has been replanted, and is protected from wind and water erosion by large straw mats held in place by a loose plastic mesh. The new vegetation will be able to grow up through this protective covering. It will be interesting in future years to see if this replanting will be successful. Will the columbines, the geraniums, the monkey flowers and the other native plants come back?
We strolled up the hillside above the parking lot, through a natural rock garden. Some of the flowers seen here, in addition to the sunflowers, were daisies and asters, paintbrush, owl clover, buckwheat, ivesia, lupine, pentstemon, cinquefoil, yarrow, gilia, blue flax, geraniums, and mountain mint.
As we turned and came back down the hill, we circled around to the road. We crossed the road, and suddenly we were in an entirely different habitat. Instead of a rock garden, we were now in a flowering meadow. It was much more moist and lush here, with thicker and taller vegetation. Some of the plants we saw here were fireweed, larkspur, false hellebore, horsemint, and columbine.
We also took note of the trees in the area. Engelmann spruce, alpine fir, and limber pine are the ones which are commonly found at this high elevation. The trees growing in exposed places often have very unsymmetrical straggly branches, usually much more sparse on one side of the tree as compared to the opposite side. It is apparent that they have been shaped by the wind and snow of winter.
I returned alone to the area in the middle of the following week. This time there were not so many people there, and I was able to drive to the upper parking lot just below the campground. The sunflowers were still very much in evidence, but other flowers were blooming in profusion which we had not seen a few days earlier. There were now many more columbines (the large white ones and also the smaller yellow ones). Along a small stream I discovered yellow monkey flowers, a few elephanthead plants, fringed parnassia, and a bog orchid. I also found several large green gentian plants, Jacob's ladder, monkshood, bluebells, cone flowers, thistle, elderberry, cow parsnip, yellow flax, and some others which were unfamiliar to me. Already I am looking forward to next year's trip so that I can find out more about this beautiful place and become better acquainted with its inhabitants.
by Sandra Bray

Albion Basin Plant Checklist