[Karen]

Grass widows are blooming in Black Canyon!! Driving directions to Black Canyon can be found in "Best Desert Hikes" by Dan Nelson and Alan Bauer (Mountaineer Books). It's rather a long drive but nice to be out in open country again on the east side. We parked the passenger vehicle rigs at the gate, then piled into the rugged rigs for the rough stretch of road to the parking area (all unsigned except for the Green Dot system). Essentially we did the loop described in "Best Desert Hikes" in reverse. We hiked up the Black Canyon road, pausing at the cabin. One member of our party is an engineer and a discussion ensued as to when the cabin might have been built and whether or not it was well-built (it wasn't). The engineer thought it was a hurry-up job and explained why - chinking was done with mud, for example. Traces of mud can be found on the timbers at ground level. We took a left turn at the first major road heading uphill rather than continuing straight on Black Canyon Road. Hit the ridge, stopped for lunch on a high point. Temperature was just perfect - not too warm, not too cold. Views of Mount Stuart and other peaks were hazy. Retraced our route but continued along the ridge (doing the loop in reverse), headed down on a somewhat snowy road with some muddy stretches and hiked out on Black Canyon road. Flowers are just starting - it's still too early for the major show but we saw squaw currant, lomatiums (tiny ones), sagebrush buttercup, sagebrush violets and best of all, grass widows. Approximate stats: 10 miles round trip, 1,600 feet gain (per my ancient altimeter) A pleasant day, good company. Karen

Black Canyon

Hikers

Grass widows, Black Canyon

[Hiker Mama]

Looks like fun, Karen. Those purple flowers must look nice poking out in all the drabness.

[Karen]

Thanks, Hiker Mama The east side is still mostly brown but there are hints of green in the hills and sprinkles of color (flowers) low to the ground. Best of all, it felt like spring yesterday. Karen

[whitebark]

Black Canyon is a great hike, thanks for the report.

[Bloated Chipmunk]

NICE!!! Yeah, the flowers are coming out...saw a decent bunch @ Sauer Mtn. yesterday. I'm hoping to continue my eastside hikes throughout the flower season. Glad you guys didn't encounter a hail storm like we did when we were hiking Black Canyon a couple yrs. ago.

[Grizzy]

LOVE the flower picture Karen! Do you have anymore?