Spring hits different on the high desert. The Cascades remain capped with snow, while the sage steppe sprouts wildflowers . . . and puts on a cloak of green.
The weather app showed nothing but sunshine, there were no appointments, so we headed north to Spring Basin Wilderness.
As it turns out we seem to have skipped spring and gone right to summer.
A nearly treeless set of rock-topped hills, Spring Basin is sandwiched between the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds and the John Day River.
There is just a bit more than six thousand acres of what, on the surface, seems an unlikely plot for wilderness designation.
There are some rare plant species to be found on the slopes of these hills, Yellow-Hairy Paint Brush and Fuzzytongue Penstemon are two.
However, we’ve make this trip nearly every spring hoping to find a Hedgehog cactus in bloom.
Not a lot of wildflowers out yet . . . but it was a gorgeous day and the loop from 97 through Antelope, Fossil, Service Creek and then down to Mitchel where it hits Highway 26 has many points of interest.
We cross the John Day River a couple of times. There are also two units to the Fossil Beds, Clarno and Painted hills.
It made for a great day . . . have made note to return for another chance at the Hedgehog Cactus.
A weathered sign board in a dusty parking area with a single flat metal post designates the trailhead. There is only a bit of shade offered by a single pine tree. A gentle incline, covered in sage and native grasses, sits below basalt cliffs marking the wilderness areas outer edges. The cacti we’re looking for may be scattered along this hillside and we assume, after the trail crests the cliff, though we’ve not hiked that far up.
