Nome Creek Wander
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Yesterday, I ventured to the White Mountain National Recreation Area in pursuit of wildflowers. With no specific agenda in mind, I was drawn to the Nome Creek area (Mt. Prindle via Nome Creek Trail Guide), a personal favorite for hiking in the Alaskan interior. Known for its abundant and diverse flora, it was a promising destination for my spontaneous exploration.
I paused at several spots along US Creek Road during my journey. The overlook at the summit of the road was teeming with arnicas, dwarf dogwood, arctic willows, and arctic sandwort. As I reached the parking area at the trailhead, I realized my choice of location had been spot on. The road and trails were adorned with shrubby cinquefoil, arctic blackberry, tall Jacob’s-ladder, glaucous gentian, capitate valerian, and more.
Undeterred by the swarm of mosquitoes that greeted me the moment I opened the car door, I set forth on the trail. As I emerged from the woods and ventured into the tundra, a steady breeze served as a natural barrier, keeping most of the insects at bay.
As I gradually ascended along the trail, there was a noticeable shift in the dominant flower species. What started as a landscape dominated by meadow bistort gradually gave way to a terrain filled with narcissus-flowered anemones before transitioning to areas rich with nakedstem wallflowers and western arctic shooting stars.
I'm still in the process of tallying up the species from the more than 300 photos I took. It appears the final count will land somewhere in the low 40s, though there are a few species that I have yet to identify. It will likely be a few days, at least, before I’ve properly identified all of them and uploaded all the photos to my website.
So far, I have about six species in the last week to add to my Alaska Wildflower Guide, and I have plans to get out quite a bit in the next week to search for more.
As a side note, after hiking in this area about three to four times a year for the last ten years, for the first time, I saw signs of grizzlies. About 3 miles up the trail, there were some very fresh tracks in the mud, along with the tracks of an older cub, looking to be about half the size of the larger tracks. It was a stark reminder to stay vigilant, given I'd perhaps grown slightly complacent in this area, never having previously encountered or seen any evidence of large predators. This definitely made me look up from the flowers a bit more frequently.
As I said before, it will probably be at least a few days before I have all the flowers identified and uploaded, but if you’d like to see more, check out my gallery for the day here: June 30, 2023. You can also stay tuned to all my recent adventures and explorations in my Recent Photos Gallery.
