JamulBlog: Day 9: Clear Lake...

We set off this morning on a quest for deer, elk, and moose, and ended up with something completely different. Our path took us along Mineral Creek, where we hoped to spot some ruminants (we did not). The road to Clear Lake – an alpine lake, high above timberline – was along the way, so we decided to take it. We ended up spending the entire day up there.

On the road up to Clear Lake, and almost everywhere else we've been, the afternoon rains have left zillions of mudpuddles. Race (our border collie) goes completely bonkers every time he hears us splashing through one. If I have the window open, which I normally do, he'll levitate and thrust his head forward and out the driver-side window in microseconds, looking down to watch the water squirting out from under the tire. We have no idea why he loves this, but love it he does. All the while he's watching, his eyes have a wild, maniacal expression and his long tongue is waving about in the wind. He's crazy for mudpuddles :)

Just before we got to Clear Lake, the road went by a talus slope on one side, and a swampy place filled with marsh marigolds on the other. We caught sight of a pika running across the road right in front of us, its mouth full of marsh marigold leaves that it had harvested. As we watched it climb the talus with this, Debbie spotted the places where the pikas were laying the leaves and grass out to dry. They were all over the place (a photo of one is below)! We stayed there for a half hour or so, just watching the busy and industrious pikas harvesting green stuff and setting it out to dry in the sun. This will become their food supply for next winter, which starts pretty early up at 11,000 or 12,000 feet! We had a great time watching them; both because it was just interesting, and because the little critters are darned cute...

The Indian paintbrush flowers around Clear Lake were simply the best I've ever seen, anywhere, anytime. There were only two species represented, I think: a yellow paintbrush, and a pink/purple paintbrush. The latter comes in many shades, which I tried to capture in the photos I took today. I walked around in one patch that extended perhaps 3 acres; it was simply delightful. I saw something there I've never seen before: elephant's head flowers and pink/purple paintbrush in roughly equal numbers, in dense patches. The ground has to be wet for the elephant's head, and I'm used to seeing paintbrush in dry, well-drained places, so this was unusual...

On the way up, we spotted bright yellow flower carpets on distant mountain sides. These were a mile or two away, too far to identify the flowers even through binoculars. But when we got up to the lake, we spotted small examples of the same sort of carpet, and discovered that it was created by two flowers in combination: yellow Indian paintbrush and the bright yellow/orange daisies we've been calling “butterfly flowers” because of the way they attract butterflies. Two flowers we know well, but together in awesome density. I'm hoping our travels will take us through one of those yellow carpets; they must be spectacular...

When we first drove up to the lake, we parked briefly on a knoll that overlooked it. There were a dozen or so people there, mostly near the parking, but a few scattered about. One person – the furthest away – was wearing a pink outfit...but after a while, it dawned on me it was more like skin color on a Caucasian. Out came the binoculars, and Debbie said “That's too much information!” Turns out it was a young lady who had just finished skinny-dipping in the lake. Clear Lake is high – just under 12,000' – and there are patches of snow touching the water's edge. The water temperature can't be more than about 35°F, and she was swimming in it. Yikes! Even out here there are crazy people. Besides us, of course :)

On the south side of Clear Lake, there's a ford over the creek that drains it to a short road around the western rim of the lake. I spotted a glorious patch of ping/purple paintbrush over there, so we went over that ford and up the road. The further we went, the more spectacular the flowers – and not just the paintbrush. There were blue columbine with many variants, including several plants with almost pure white blossoms, and quite a few with a beautiful pale lavender color. There were several kinds of tiny little alpine plants with incredibly small blossoms (some as little as a tenth of an inch in diameter). There was purple phlox in profusion, with some of the best phlox color I've ever seen – and an absolutely heavenly scent if you lie down on the ground and stuff your nose into them. I took a lot of photos along about 500' of that road, a few of which are below.

All-in-all, the immediate vicinity of Clear Lake was the equal of the best of Stony Gulch for wildflowers, though much, much smaller in extent. For two flowers: blue columbine and pink/purple paintbrush, it easily beats Stony Gulch – which we thought was absolutely fantastic.

Now we're back at the cabin, relaxing in front of a wood stove with a crackling log and lots of red hot embers. It's in the 40s here, and intermittently raining; the stove feels very nice...