America’s Wildflowers, On the Road in a Truck Camper Pt 2

Heres a few from our 2015 Summer Journey

Sometimes the flowers or their plants are large:

Joshua trees blooming at Mojave National Preserve:



Mojave yucca plants blooming at Cottonwood Spring, Joshua Tree National Park:



Palo Verde tree blooming along Box Canyon Road between JTNP and Mecca:



Some flowers are tiny, with miscellaneous objects thrown in for scale:









Sometimes the flowers show as a soft gentle carpet:



Sometimes the flowers are not even there any more because they were eaten by voracious sphinx moth caterpillars:



My favorite flowers for this trip, Sand Blazing Star, found along the aqueduct road south of JTNP:



And sometimes even with barely any flowers, the springtime desert is beautiful:

I returned a couple of hours ago from a 9-day ramble through Mojave National Preserve, Joshua Tree National Park, and Anza Borrego Desert State Park. No spectacular showings, but many flowers for those willing to look a bit. Everything from tiny daisies barely larger than a pinhead to flowering giants (Joshua trees, palo verde trees, ocotillo). It is especially interesting to me to see how the type of vegetation and amount of bloom changes so quickly with the ups and downs of terrain. I am hoping to have some flower photos for this thread, but first must recover from travel exhaustion.

After 2 visits to Death Valley, in 2016, I was not disappointed with the Super Bloom of wildflowers for this spring season. A Super Bloom is when wildflowers appear a year after a wet winter in the desert. In this case, the winter of 2014 & 2015 had exceptional precipitation, including damage from some heavy rainfall. Did anyone visit Death Valley and see some of the Super Bloom for this season?

b

Beautiful photos. Thanks.

Steve.

Last part of our trip to the Great Smoky Mountains and a sampling of the beautiful wildflowers we saw there.

Leaving Deep Creek one camper headed east while two headed west and quickly reached Hwy 441. Look, Kohldad, mountains! We must be heading west! (Sorry for the poor stitching job. I'm not a fan of this application in my new Corel Paintshop.)




Lining the roadside were bright yellow dandelions.






Some dandelions had transformed into puffballs




Near the crest at Newfound Gap was a patch of long canes with bunches of flowers along their length, Hobblebush (Viburnum alnifolium) or more commonly called Dog Hobble since the canes frequently loop back to ground where they root creating a nearly impenetrable tangle.




Lower to the ground were little Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica).




Further along the road on the west slope was a patch of Large White Trillium (Trilluum grandiflorum).






Most of the way down the west side of Hwy 441 we were stopped by construction. While we waited I looked out the window at the thick vegetation. Look, another trillium … and it’s yellow! Of course right then the traffic started to move so I was only able to snap a quick photo through the side window. I thought maybe I’d see more down the road where we could stop but never did.




Upon reaching Cades Cove we found out that cars wouldn’t be allowed on the loop road the next morning. Spring, summer, and fall the road is closed on Wednesday and Saturday mornings to allow hikers and bikers a chance to enjoy the valley without dodging traffic. So Wednesday I arose early and hiked from the campground out onto into the Cove.




Morning dew sparkled on the many flowers like these Bulbous Buttercups (Ranunculus bulbosus).







Even the grasses were flowering and sparkling with dew.







Evidently Common Fleabane flowers curl up and sleep at night.




Red Clover




Fringed Phacelia (Phacelia fimbriata)






Dew speckled spider webs were suspended from the grasses and flowers.




Horses grazed among patches of buttercups.




Walking the loop road with only a handful of fellow hikers and bikers was pleasant. I only made it a short distance down the road before it was time to head back to share breakfast with the family. After lunch we drove the rigs into the Cove. It wasn’t long before we found ourselves in a bear jam.




So I jumped out to walk alongside where I could enjoy more of the flora …




… and fauna.




We finally reached the head of the bear jam.




The source of the bear jam … a mother bear at the base of a tree and her cub hiding in a tree above (barely visible behind the left patch of leaves obscuring the crotch).




I can’t talk about Cades Cove without mentioning the several churches, homesteads, and mill around the loop.




But today it’s mostly the flowers that we’re enjoying like these Oxeye Daisies (Chrysntehmum lencanthemum).




Golden Ragwort (Senecio aureus)






Blackberry bramble






Mamma bear and two clubs.




Our lunch spot.




Little blue flowering plant with furry simple leaves.







A beautiful spring view.




Pearl Crescent butterfly




Eastern Tailed-Blue butterfly, every bit as pretty as the flowers!




Stopping by the donation box on the way out of the loop road.




Hope you enjoyed seeing a few of the beautiful flowers and such from our springtime visit to Smoky Mountain National Park.

Tiger4x4RV wrote:
This thread needs a "Like" button.

THEY all do!!!! Great images as always!!! I would like to see some of the rejects...hehe!

Beautiful, Phyllis! So nice to see such a variety and a different enviroment that have these wildflowers. Looking forward to your shots from The Great Smokeys.

b

Leaving Lake Powhatan, we headed south on the Blue Ridge Parkway.




Along the Parkway we saw hillsides full of blooms, the blooms of Downy Serviceberry trees.






The understory bushes were blooming too, like this American Bladdernut (Staphlyea trifolia).






Even the ground appeared to be sprouting blooms, like these Bluets (Houstonia caerulia) which were so pretty they almost looked fake.






After dropping down off the Parkway we made our way over to Deep Creek Campground, just inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near Bryson City NC. This area is at elevation 1800 feet, a little lower than Lake Powhatan, and features a creek with several easily accessible waterfalls. In this environment we saw some of the same flowers we’d seen earlier and others we hadn’t seen before.




Dwarf Blue Flag (Iris verna)






False Solomon Seal (Smilacina racemose)






Bulbous Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus)




Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)






Goldenthread (Coptis groenlandica)




Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricate)




Pretty white flower






Tiny yellow flowers






Tiny white flowers







I’m going to call this one Fireworks Flower (Petalus explodia) until one of you tells me what it is :B






There were also a variety of trilliums. The first one I was able to identify as a Nodding Trillium (Trillium cernuum) but the rest aren’t clear cut to me.




My DB spotted this trillium hanging off the side of the hill below the trail. His DW said not to climb down there so of course we did. A purple version of the Nodding Trillium? I read that trilliums readily crossbreed.












This is not what one thinks of as a flower but it’s beautiful in its own way … Jack in the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum).




My SIL spotted these flocks of moths and butterflies. Again not flowers but very pretty nonetheless.






Next up … Cades Cove.

Here ya go, from my latest trip.
Two wildflowers, a snow capped mountain and a TC


and ....

three different wildflowers, a log and a TC. :B