Friday March 6th 2020

Today broke yesterday’s record for warmest day of the year so far. The temperature peaked a little higher in the mid eighties. A little more wind made for a more comfortable day than yesterday.

I went to the ranger presentation on the areas wildflowers at the Discovery center at 2PM. I got there early and enjoyed some of the other exhibits while I waited for the presentation to start. There are a number of displays on the history of Lake Pleasant and the wildlife that lives in the park.

Two park rangers gave the presentation on the wildflowers in the park. It was basically a Powerpoint presentation with the rangers tag teaming the description of the blossoms and the locations in the park where they can be found. The pictures of the blossoms were very pretty, but I felt like I was on the receiving end of a fire hose. They showed pictures of more than thirty different blossoms. The differences between some varieties is so subtle you could stare at them side by side for an hour before you’d see it. I’d never pass the test after the lecture. The rangers even admitted that they have difficulty identifying some in the wild when they are leading hikes to view the flowers.

I came away with some good information. We are in the middle of the wildflower season. This year is an above average year for wildflowers. The cactus blossom season follows the peak of the wildflower season starting in the middle of April. The bush with yellow flowers that look a little like daisies is a Brittlebush. They are plentiful in the campground, but just about past their peak blossoming season.

It is disappointing I didn’t learn all of this information last week. I only have a few days between now and when I leave here that I’m not attending a baseball game to hike the trails with some of the other flowers they mentioned. I’ll give at least one of the trails a try on Sunday and many of the same wildflowers will be around at my next stop in the east valley.