Trinity Alps & Vicinity: Including Whiskeytown, Russian Wilderness, and Castle Crags Areas
preceding two paragraphs only hint at the diversity of the hundreds of species of plants that thrive in this section of the Klamath Mountains. To name and describe them all would require an entire volume. Many people derive a great deal of pleasure from being able to identify, as well as admire, the many flowers they see. For such a purpose, A Field Guide to Pacific States Wildflowers by Theodore E. Niehaus, Roger Tory Peterson, and Charles L. Ripper (in the Peterson Field Guides series) is highly recommended.
You may be surprised by the sheer number of species you can identify here that are described in the guide which usually grow on the northern stretches of the Pacific Coast. This is because, as mentioned earlier, the Klamath Mountains are a meeting place for plant species from five biotic zones. At least one species, the California pitcher plant, found more often in the Trinity Alps than anywhere else, is rare and listed as being of special concern in California. Please do not pick any specimens, and be very careful not to damage the native flora.
Many locations and descriptions of wildflowers are noted in the trips at the points where they occur, but some general descriptions may be in order. The largest displays of flowers are found in mountain meadows. The species vary considerably with the type of meadow, elevation, and location. You’ll find California pitcher plants in the wettest and steepest meadows at fairly high elevations, but they also may be found growing around the edges of ponds in the midst of small openings in the mixed-conifer and red-fir communities. Angelica and yampa bloom in most meadows, except for very dry meadows on flat ridgetops. Those high, dry, and often gravelly meadows support pussy paws, cat’s ears, sulfur flowers, and cinquefoils. All of these represent only a small sampling of the marvelous variety of flowers you’re apt to see in the meadows.
Streamside locations support a completely different group of wildflowers. Most showy among these are the head-high spikes of larkspurs and monkshoods. Marsh marigolds, buttercups, and Jeffrey’s shooting stars bloom beside little rills at the higher elevations just after snowmelt. Later, and even higher, a dozen or more varieties of monkeyflowers display a wide range of colors beside seeps and springs, while edible swamp onions grow right in icy streams.
A surprising number of flowers bloom in the deep shade of the mixed-conifer community. Early in the season you may see woodland stars, milkmaids, and trillium. Later, the parasitic flowers, such as coral roots and pinedrops, display their ghostly beauty on leafless forest floors. Mahonia and salal, usually considered more north Pacific Coast plants, grow under thick stands of Douglas-firs. Washington lilies prefer a little more sun in openings in the low-elevation mixed forest, as do gilias, irises, and mints.
California pitcher plants
Photo: Luther Linkhart
Other Plants
Ferns, mosses, and lichens grow abundantly in the Klamath Mountains; they approach rainforest proportions in some of the lower canyons, covering rocks and trees alike with a green mantle. In other low-elevation areas, gray strands of Spanish moss drape away from tree limbs, and staghorn lichens stand out from the trunks. At boundaries between meadows and forests in the mixed-conifer community, ferns grow to head height, crowding the trails. Acres of brake ferns cover some of the meadows at the red-fir level. A variety of lichens add their colors to the rocks higher up, and delicate five-finger ferns decorate dripping grottos.
ANIMALS
Warm-Blooded Animals
A quite common, wild, large, warm-blooded animal in the Klamath Mountains is the black bear. The area has seen a sizable increase in the bear population in recent decades, although you probably won’t see one on your backpack, as these animals remain quite wary of humans. However, you can safeguard against encountering a bear in the backcountry by following a few simple guidelines. At camp, effectively hang all of your food, trash, and scented items (toothpaste, sunscreen, etc.) from a stout tree limb out of a bear’s reach (10 feet high and 5 feet out from the trunk), or, better yet, put all of that stuff in an approved bear canister. Wash your dishes, keep your camp clean, and try not to cook more food than you’ll realistically eat. You may still hear a bear nosing around your camp in the middle of the night, searching for food, but with the proper precautions, at least you won’t go hungry for the rest of your trip. More than likely, you will see bear scat on the trails as well as other signs, such as scratch marks on tree trunks, or torn-up logs, but people rarely see bears in this region.
Columbian black-tailed deer appreciate the pathways humans have constructed as much as the bears do, so you’ll probably see their signs along the trail as well. You’re apt to see does and fawns along the way, and if you are lucky, a buck or two. Every buck has been hunted since the first year of their life, so they’re justifiably wary of humans. Noises around your camp at night are much more likely to be made by a deer than a bear. Deer are attracted to camp food, especially anything salty, and they also have been known to chew on anything that is sweat-soaked, such as clothing, pack straps, and boots. While setting up camp in Grizzly Meadows after the hot and sweaty climb from the China Gulch Trailhead, I removed my soaking-wet T-shirt and set it out on some bushes to dry. A short time later a deer wandered into camp and started chewing away on my shirt. When the deer finally finished, the T-shirt had a pattern of holes resembling a slice of Swiss cheese. Don’t feed the deer—they become horrible pests once they’ve become habituated to getting food from humans. Don’t approach or try to pet one either—despite our Bambi-inspired feelings, they are potentially dangerous, and they carry ticks and lice. Still, a doe and her twin fawns drinking out of a fog-shrouded stream at dawn is a most memorable sight. Mountain lions, the deer’s only predator (besides humans), are very scarce in the Klamath Mountains.
Black-tailed doe in Morris Meadow
The next largest mammal in the area is the resourceful coyote. Coyotes are rarely seen but more often heard on moonlit nights. Coyote calls, passed back and forth from ridge to ridge, are a thrilling wilderness symbol. Martens, fishers, and long-tailed weasels are also seldom-seen animals, although present in the Klamath Mountains in significant numbers.
Smaller warm-blooded animals of the rodent order swarm in some parts of the Klamath Mountains. Mice, chipmunks, and ground squirrels prosper in areas of high human visitation, with people feeding them directly from their hands and indirectly from the horse feed, horse droppings, and garbage they leave behind. There is a relationship between large rodent populations and healthy populations of rattlesnakes—the snakes move in to take advantage of the abundant food supply. In the less-traveled western Trinity Alps, there is a dearth of rodents when compared to more popular areas in the eastern Alps. Bears, bobcats, weasels, and coyotes may also have an impact on the absence of rodents in the western Alps.
One delightful rodent you’re apt to see is the cheeky Douglas squirrel (also known as the pine squirrel or chickaree). This rodent’s strident chattering and frenetic activity in the mixed-conifer and red-fir forests are often amusing to passersby. The Douglas squirrel is rarely a camp robber, but he may drop a green pine or fir cone uncomfortably close to you as you pass beneath his tree. The piles of cone scales and cones under trees usually belong to Douglas squirrels.
The much larger gray squirrel, which lives in the mixed low-elevation forest, is very shy and seldom seen. Skunks, raccoons, ringtail cats, opossums, and foxes also frequent this community, rarely moving into the upper communities.
Oddly, the western states’ largest rodent, the porcupine, is rare in this area, although quite common elsewhere in California. Bats are often seen around lakes and meadows after dusk, hunting for insects. Their marvelous flight rarely ceases to amaze visitors to their realm.
The Douglas squirrel has attitude to spare.
Photo: Luther Linkhart
Birds
Nothing begins the day quite as well as birdsong outside your tent—unless you’re exhausted from the previous day’s