Beargrass Explosion!

In early summer, a creamy-colored poofy flower adorns the slopes of  the high Cascades.  Known as beargrass, this unusual plant carpets open meadows and forest floors.  Sought by photographers, a prolific bloom can make stunning scenic images.

Huge bloom on Santiam Pass

Monitoring several hiking and wildflower pages gives me a good idea what flowers are blooming and where.  In early July, I got a hot tip about a bountiful beargrass bloom on Santiam Pass.

Beargrass forever...

There's lots of myths about beargrass.  One of them is that it only blooms in abundance every 7 years.  Although mass blooms don't occur on an annual basis, (depends upon spring moisture) it seems every year there is always a good bloom happening someplace in the Oregon Cascade Mountains. 

Tuft close-up

The other beargrass myth is that bears like to eat the white tufts.  Sheep, deer, elk and goats are known to consume beargrass, but not bears.  However, bears do use the plant's leaves as denning material.

Forest floor covered with the stalks

This year the area around Santiam Pass won the beargrass jackpot.  Heading home from a 4th of July family camping trip, I convinced my hubby to make a stop at the PCT trailhead on Santiam Pass.  While he waited in the truck, I grabbed my camera and roamed around the adjacent woods.  The forest floor was absolutely covered with tall, beige, poofy stalks.  It was indeed a massive bloom. 

Mt Washington

Not only did I capture some great shots of the acres of beargrass, clear skies highlighted the adjacent mountain peaks.  Hello Mt Washington!

View from Coffin Mtn trail

Not only Santiam Pass, rumor had it nearby Coffin Mountain was also hosting a huge beargrass bloom.  After seeing several fabulous images posted on local hiking websites, I knew I had to go there.

Backlit poofs

So a week later, I woke up ungodly early on a Friday morning, and made the three-hour drive to Coffin Mtn trailhead.

Field on Coffin Mtn trail

The first mile there were a few nice patches of beargrass, but they looked tired and droopy.  Hoping I hadn't missed the peak bloom, I continued on my uphill climb.

Huge open beargrass field

After a mile, the trail emerged from the forest onto a wide, treeless meadow.  It was here that I saw what I'd been looking for.  The entire hillside was covered with beargrass poofs.  Acres and acres of fuzzy, beige flowers.  It was the most beargrass I'd ever seen in one location.
 

My "Sound of Music" moment

Oh my, it was phenomenal!  This was hands-down the highest concentration of beargrass I'd seen - ever!

Coffin Mtn Lookout

I slowly made my way to the very top, snapping copious images as I went.  Coffin Mountain has a fire lookout tower on it's summit.  However, on this day in early July it wasn't yet staffed. 

Beargrass surrounds the helipad

No matter, I sat on the helipad, surrounded by beargrass, and enjoyed a scenic lunch.

Dense concentration

My return trip took almost as long as my ascent.  Afternoon light made for some better images of this sea of beargrass, with Mt Jefferson a majestic backdrop.

Mt Jefferson and beargrass fields

It was hard to choose just one image, so my readers get two!

Coffin Mtn beargrass fields

After finishing the short trek up Coffin Mtn, I drove to nearby Bachelor Mtn.  Having time for another quick hike (and hoping for more beargrass sightings) I decided to explore this neighboring peak.  

Scarlet gilia on Bachelor Mtn

Although beargrass was nowhere close to matching Coffin Mtn in abundance, I did pass by a nice field of tomato-red Scarlet gilia.

Cascade lilies

And I found a few stalks of Cascade lilies.  The flowers were so fragrant!

Snowbrush

Fluffy white snowbrush was blooming everywhere.

Cascade lily

It was a steep, hot trek to Bachelor Mountain's summit.  I was beginning to wonder if this was worth the sweaty effort, when Mt Jefferson appeared over the horizon.  The summit had a front-row, million-dollar view of this lovely mountain.  Yes, it was worth it!

Mules ears flowers

On Bachelor Mtn summit

It was a good day.  I was able to catch the spectacular beargrass bloom on Coffin Mountain before it faded away.  I bagged two summits, and added two hikes to my "52 Hike Challenge" list.