WILDFLOWER ADVENTURE: Thursday

MARCH 24

DeSoto Falls

After a delicious egg soufflé with apricot crumble at the Mountain Laurel Inn we WALK to DeSoto Falls in about 15 minutes.  Little River falls 104 feet into a dramatic gorge.  It is the only known river in this hemisphere to flow along the top of a mountain. 

Don and I risk our lives by clambering down to get closer to the loud noise of the rain-swelled river crashing down.

 Above, the sky is partly cloudy but some weather person somewhere tells us it will rain this morning with thunderstorms so we drive quickly to nearby DeSoto Falls State Park.  We want to have as much time in the woods as possible before we have to honker down.

Wild Turkeys We Saw By the Road

I hope to find some green mountain pitcher plants in the woods.   Unfortunately people steal precious plants.   So when I locate Ken, the park guide, at the Country Store, I explain that I have a Native Plant Certificate from the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, including a course in conservation.  Nevertheless he says he cannot tell me where to find the pitcher plants.  “I don’t know how to find them but Brittney, the park naturalist, can tell you.”

 










Partly frozen




Brittney is not in the nature display room.  Don and Marguerite point out the pitcher plant demonstration area built by Boy Scouts.  I see it but I still want to see these unusual guys growing in their own home.

 On her voice mail I say, “Hello, Brittney, I got your phone number from Ken because I would like to see where the green pitcher plants grow.  I went on a conservation field trip in Georgia to weed around protected plants in the mountains so I am a safe person.”  We drive to Brittney’s office but she is not there.   She has a beautiful pitcher plant in the window.  She wouldn’t have left just to avoid me, would she?

Britney's Green Pitcher Plants

 Oh well, we’ll walk on the Azalea Cascade Trail, also called a Birding Trail, which is at the end of the most beautiful ADA (Americans with Disabilities) trail I have seen.  The boardwalk meanders quite a distance and has bumps with benches for resting. 

Marguerite and Don on Boardwalk near Azalea Cascade

Steps at the end lead to a tiny waterfall filling a small pond with teensy fish and big water striders. 

What are these two silver guys up to?

I find a sac made from a leaf curled up and joined by threads, firmly attaching it to a budding twig.  Cocoon of some sort, I imagine, of something fairly large.

Leaves of Crane Fly Orchid

Trout Lily

Yellow Violet

 There are some nice wildflowers above the pond.  Some people disdain violets but I love them in the wild and at home. 

Common Blue Violet near Ferns and Dwarf Iris

Wild Ginger with Baby Flowers Coming Out Above

 
Next Trail:  Indian Falls

 On Indian Falls Trail we see a shrimpy falls in a lovely mossy setting.

Lush Moss and Partridgeberry

  Next to the Falls is an outstanding cave.  I can imagine Native peoples or bears using it as a resting place during a storm.  

Interesting Roof of the Cave

 If I knew more (or anything) about geology I could use technical terms to describe the roof of the cave.  This area is loaded with caves because of all the limestone, which is easy to wash away, leaving the surrounding rock.  

Marguerite takes a picture of me from up there because I’ve done some rather tricky (for me) climbing over boulders to get into the middle of the stream.  

A tree grows right next to the bridge.  Which came first?  What does the bulge tell us?  Somebody please figure it out and tell me.

Finally, the rain begins so we begin Plan B.

 Adjacent to the park is Sallie Howard Memorial Chapel, built by her stalwart husband in the last year of his life.   Colonel Milford Howard was a former U.S. Congressman.  For six weeks in a horribly wet and cold winter, with help from the blessed CCC boys, he acted as foreman, constructing the stone chapel so that a giant boulder is one wall, coming into the sanctuary.  Don says, “They talked him out of putting up a neon sign saying Jesus Saves.”

A bit windblown and damp, we dine at the Green Leaf Grill, so hungry we almost eat the hand-printed menu.

Afterwards, retreating to the Inn’s community room, I read about the area.  I had no idea that two-thirds of Alabama is woodland.  And that northeast Alabama has about 1,000 species of wildflowers.  I used to think poorly of Alabama based upon news stories, I guess.  But after this trip and what I’ve read, my impression has changed.

No rain predicted for tomorrow, which is nice, cause we’re going to the best wildflower trail in Georgia.

WILDFLOWER ADVENTURES March 23

First of Four Wonderful Days

Hugh Nourse, my hero, and Carol Nourse wrote a wonderful book, Favorite Wildflower Walks in Georgia.  I am determined, before I croak, to see every one.  When I asked where Hugh and Carol stayed when they were scouting out trails in Northwest Georgia, he suggested Mountain Laurel Inn in Mentone, Alabama.   Sarah Wilcox will welcome us there at 3 PM, Alabama time (4 PM Georgia).

Fortunately I have two friends willing to join in on wildflower adventures: Don and Marguerite.  For those who read my last entry, you will understand why I am thrilled that Don is driving.  A good driver, he has a wonderful new car with classical music and opera Serius stations.  Between that and Marguerite’s conversation, we do not mind getting stuck in traffic near Atlanta.  I am lying on the back seat, resting my back from three straight days of weeding.  Last year I trained myself to weed only two hours each day but I forgot the punishment for not following that rule.

Going to Cloudland Canyon for lunch makes sense.  At the office we get directions for the canyon trail, which we like better than the rim trail.  Walking on the rim has many dramatic views but is fairly rocky and shy of flowers.  The bottom of the canyon is an easier walk and full of beautiful plants and two ripply streams.  But first we have lunch and all three of us take pictures of each other taking pictures of the view.  It’s cool up there, almost 1800 feet, and windy.

Getting to Sitton’s Gulch Trail is strange because after we leave the entrance to Cloudland Canyon State Park, we drive down the mountain and through a housing development.  There are caves in this part of the park but, because the State is trying to help bats with the infectious white nose disease, they have closed them to people.   

 Cloudland Canyon is on the Cumberland Plateau, atop Lookout Mountain.  There is only one Lookout Mountain but it is located in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.   Many of the park amenities were built by the blessed Civilian Conservation Corps.   For more on this beautiful place, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudland_Canyon_State_Park

Here are photos of parts of the trail and streams.

Marguerite finding butterflies

Just a few of the very large boulders

When we set out on the trail, Don takes off.  M and I take a slower pace so we can study the butterflies, flowers, ferns, and such.  (Here are photographs which I attempt to label correctly using reference books and questions to experts.  Any mistakes are mine.  These are WILD flowers we saw in about two hours.)

Flowers and ferns:

Giant Chickweed

Dwarf Larkspur

Foamflower

Foamflower Closeup

Bouquet of Fiddleheads

Fiddlehead Getting Shade Under May Apple

Long Spurred Violet Front View

Long Spurred Violet with Obvious Spur

Bouquet of Long Spurred Violets with Spring Beauties

Ragwort with Pollinator

Rue Anemone

Rue Anemone Closeup

Spring Beauty

Slender Toothwort (I hope)

Slender Toothwort (I hope) with Leaves

Decumbent Trillium

Several Trout Lilies

Trout Lily Closeup

Whorled Rosinweed

Wild Blue Phlox

Wild Blue Phlox About to Open Fully

Wild Geranium Flower Closeup

Wild Geranium with Leaves

Closeup of Yellow Violet (below)

Halberdleaf Yellow Violet

Mayapple with Bud (They only flower on "twins")

Masses of Mayapples

Possibly Spring Cress

Buckeye getting ready to open

We do not see fast-moving Don again for about 90 minutes or more although he calls M on the phone to assure us he is alive.  When M is ready to rest on a rock by the stream, I set off to find Don.  I see a two foot long black snake with a yellow stripe along its side.  But I scare it to death when I grab my camera; it hides in the leaves.  No Don.  

Some of the beautiful creatures we saw (not counting the snake):

Three Dreamy Duskywing Butterflies Consorting

Question Mark Butterfly

I must have been too noisy because I scared this beautiful snail who was walking along until...  

Here s/he is hiding inside the shell from me.

I think this is a Cabbagewhite Butterfly Hiding from Me

As I begin to ascend a trail with large boulders on my right and a ravine on my left, I see a thin woman descending rapidly, wearing ear phones.  She takes them off when I ask whether she’s seen a man with a blue jacket on her way down.  “Nope.  I met a young man named Clyde, though, as I came down the whole descent.” 

Well, if Don is not in front of me, maybe he took one of the side cave trails.  I return to Marguerite who reports that Don is returning and will meet us in about 20 minutes. 

We amble back.  While we wait near the parking lot, I chat with an older (than me) gent who is walking behind us on a small trail.  He has a cane and uses it to point to the flowers, which he names with authority.  He comes here several times each year, lucky man.  Here are the flowers we saw only on that trail:

Canadian Violet

Oxalis Leaves

Closeup of the Stone Crop (below)

Sedum Stone Crop with Moss

 When Don arrives we set off for our apartment at the Mountain Laurel Inn.  It’s close by and is ever so much nicer than a chain motel (in Trenton, Georgia) where we stayed last year.  Our host welcomes us with information about where to eat, how to walk (walk!) to DeSoto Falls from our place, when to come for breakfast, and maps.  After we take our bags up, we go to DeSoto State Park Grill.  We’re so hungry we eat everything.  I forget what I have because I see a photograph of pitcher plants on the wall.  My iPhone says the rare green mountain pitcher plant has been reported in this park.  No one in the restaurant knows where they can be found but I finally learn that a park guide named Ken can help tomorrow morning.  I’m on the hunt…

Don, Marguerite, and I Perusing the Menu

 On the menu is information about DeSoto State Park, which was also constructed by the blessed CCC.  President Roosevelt was a genius to hire unemployed people during the depression to build this natural heritage.  I wonder whether another President will be so forward thinking and have a cooperative Senate.

It is supposed to rain Thursday, as early as 10:00 AM, so we decide to stay in this area and get an early start.

 Thanks to Dale Hoyt, Don Hunter, and Hugh Nourse for help with correctly identified plants.  If you see any mistakes, please write me in the Comments section so readers will get the correct information, okay?