On many hikes I stopped to take pictures of wildflowers. If a beautiful or especially colorful flower caught my eye, my phone came out, and I snapped a picture. This hike was different. We got the permit to see the famed Subway in Zion National Park. It just so happened that I recently decided to learn plant identification all by me onsie (yes, I channeled my inner Jack Sparrow).
Our typical steady pace became fraught with stops for wildflower photos as I paused at every new flower to take pictures at all angles. Did I get the leaves? What about the sepals? That picture is blurry; I need to take another one. Why won’t my phone focus?!?! My sweet husband patiently (or so it seemed) waited as I cursed my phone and attempted to get enough good photos to identify the wildflowers later.
In an ideal world, I would sit next to the specimen while flipping through plant identification books to possibly give a name to the beauty before me. Considering the hike took us over seven hours without me thumbing through books, we might never have made it out of the canyon had I tried to identify the wildflowers in situ.
The canyon primarily consists of riparian areas thanks to the Left Fork North Creek flowing through. Moist, sandy areas made a fine home for many a wildflower. On previous hikes, I can’t imagine how many wildflowers I failed to notice simply because I wasn’t looking for them. While trying to stay vertical with my eyes constantly scanning the sides of the trail instead of looking at the trail before me, I discovered over 20 different wildflowers! Well, flowers that I managed to get pictures of anyway.
Climbing out of the canyon into the pinyon-juniper forest, pricklypear lined the trail. Drought-tolerant wildflowers bloomed in full force, reminding me that even arid environments show their colors in the spring. As we reached the trailhead, I marveled at the stunning flowers our hike revealed and wondered how many wildflowers escaped my field of view.