Table Rock Wilderness

This weekend my parents were in town and mom wanted to go hiking. The weather was a little iffy and wanted a hike that we wanted a good dog friendly hike to let the dogs come along. So we decided to not go to far and I took them on the same hike I did back on the 4th of July with Ryan, Danielle, and Todd. I knew most of the flowers would be done, but on the other hand I remembered that there were a few that had not quite bloomed yet when we were up there last time. The weather was a little dreary, but we piled in my little pickup and headed out anyway. When we got to the trail head the dogs where wound up and ready to run, and run they did.



I got a couple of pictures of the Pinedrops that that we had seen the time before, but had not been out in bloom yet.


Pinedrops

We then stopped to take a look at the Candystick that was also farther along its life cycle


Candystick


the forest carpet

The Coralroot's had all gone into the seed pod stage



I soon had mom and Jodie looking and spotting the interesting plant life along the trail. As we continued up the trail Jodie ask me if I knew what this strange little plant was.


It was nothing that I had ever see, so I took a couple of pictures. I figured that I would see if Ryan would know what it was. As it turned out Ryan had seen it earlier, but had no idea what it was ether. About a week later emailed and called me back to tell me that he knew what it was. Ryan had stumbled on to it while flipping through a book at one of the ranger stations. Apparently this plant is very rare. It is called the Gnome Plant, Hemitomes congestum. You can learn more about this rarely seen plat at Botanical Society of America


Gnome Plant, Hemitomes congestum





I would have liked to go back up to see this flower opened up. It has such a great contrast between the vivid blue and the white.



very cool looking flower

until next time... Happy trails!!