Annual Spring Wildflower Walk

On Tuesday April 16th, 22 intrepid explorers hit the trails at Big Creek for the annual BRNN Spring Wildflower Walk.  Long traffic delays on I-40 were soon forgotten when we finally arrived to a stunning show along the Big Creek and Baxter Creek trails.  The weather was gorgeous, with clear skies, bright sunshine, and temperatures that rose to near 80 degrees in the afternoon.  Heavy rains over the previous weeks left the creek considerably higher than normal, and seemed to prompt more blooms than we could recall from recent years.  Highlights from the walk were massive blooms of purple and fringed phacelia, foam flower, wild geranium, and trillium.  We also found some nice examples of Showy Orchis and Doll’s Eyes in full bloom.  In all our teams identified 56 wildflower species, with the majority of those in flower.