Mount Hebo

Pioneer Indian Trail in May

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We leave a sunny Depoe Bay the second week of May 2004 and drive once more to our favorite Mount Hebo trail only to be rained out again. This time we don't even bother to get out of our cars.

On May 23^rd we try again. Our tenacity finally pays off. There is dew on the flora beside the trails, which only adds to the beauty of the forest, but finally, no rain or snow.

As if they were waiting for the sun to entice them from the earth,

a cornucopia of wildflowers now bloom beside the trail: Fawn Lilies fully open and more receptive to being photographed; Viola Adunca and Vanilla Leaf visible only as green foliage beside the trail on our last visit, if at all, now in full bloom in the forested sections of the trail.

White Fawn Lily

Viola Adunca

Vanilla

Unsure of the identity of several flowers we guess that they are some species of anemone, or that they may even be the same species in different stages of maturity.

Bunchberry, a member of the dogwood family, Star Flowered False Solomon's Seal, Oregon Grape and Fairy Bells also bloom in the forest section.

Bunchberry

Star Flowered False Solomon's Seal

Oregon Grape

Fairy Bells

We leave the forest and reach the prairie, which is radically different. It is rocky, grassy, dusty and almost treeless, but not devoid of shrubs, which allows one a fantastic western view. One can see treetops and what appear to be small farms below. On a clear day one can see the Pacific Ocean with Oceanside's Three Arch Rocks and a body of water we assume to be part of Tillamook Bay. Unfortunately, our cameras cannot adequately capture of the splendor of the sights.

The prairie section also has different yet beautiful species of flora growing in the open among the rocks and grasses: Lupine, Coastal Strawberry not yet in fruit, and Indian Paintbrush. We see a few flowers we cannot identify.

Lupine

Coastal Strawberry

Indian Paintbrush

We hike to the bog to eat our lunch on an old fallen tree. It's too early in the season for the wildflowers in that section to be blooming.

After leaving the bog it is less than a mile through forest terrain to the Old Mount Hebo Campground. We rest for a while and survey the abandoned campground. Its closure was forced by the vandalism of forest visitors—humans not animals.

Then we backtrack to our cars hoping that when we return in June the bog wildflowers will be in bloom

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