Rattlesnake Hike- April 12, 2026

Participants: Steve Schombel, David & Julie Kahl

Folks have been posting photos of the amazing bloom of wildflowers on Water Works Hill, but there are, also, early wildflowers that don’t grow in Water Works Hill’s high dry locale. We went looking for those, up the main trail in the Rattlesnake, on a Sunday afternoon that was surprising quiet for this much used area. The creek was roaring with white water and full bank to bank, it was running back over itself through nooks and crannies it only sees this time of year. We hadn’t even made it down to the horse pack bridge before we saw trilliums in their favorite shaded cool damp environments. (Each trillium plant has to be 15-18 years old before it blooms -don’t pick them.) Not much further on we saw our first pasque flowers close by glacier lilies. Moving on, the road wanders away from the creek, in open woods and meadows, here we heard evening gross beaks and a red breasted nuthatch. Further up, the trail comes back to the creek, now high above it. Here we found shooting stars, and a lone yellow bell and big fat buttercups. Lots of small lupine and arnica promised the next wave of flowers. Steve had things he had to do later in the afternoon, and it was predicted to start raining around 3:PM, so we stopped at the first junction with the Walman Trail, a little over 2 miles/3.3k up. We sat in a grassy spot, to stay out of the ticks, and ate lunch, lingered, listening to the creek not wanting the adventure to end. On the way back, the last mile out, we started getting cold gusts of wind. By the time we got back to town, it was raining. A perfect spring hike. Julie Kahl