Sunday, July 25, 2010

Blue Ridge Parkway: Summer wildflowers


Wildflowers saved the day for me at Waterrock Knob. Day 8 of our recent mountain trip found us hiking up the Waterrock Knob trail on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is only one mile round trip, but steep, steep, steep. The last time we took that trail was more than three decades ago. The hike was easier this time. I progressed a few feet at a time with long pauses in between to snap photos of the abundant wildflowers.

Gracefulness was not in my repertoire, though. Some of the steep, rocky places I negotiated crab-style on all fours going up. On my descent the occasional application of a sitting-and-scooting technique came in handy. It was, however, exhilarating. Below are some of the flowers I enjoyed. Any misidentifications are entirely my own.

Mountain bush honeysuckle

Turk’s cap lily

 Pale jewelweed, also known as pale touch-me-not

Mountain saxifrage

Mountain St. John’s-wort

White wood aster, similar but with fewer petals than the mountain wood aster in an earlier post.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, what a gorgeous collection of flowers. I can't imagine seeing all of those on one hike. Incedentially that's the way I climb too. Not very pretty but it gets me where I need to be.
    I love the saxifage shot. It looks like jewels and the water drop just finishes the picture perfectly.
    Sue

    ReplyDelete