The first wildflowers actually appear before the first day of spring, even in this area.   As the snows start to melt in early March, we take to the south slopes, looking for areas that can dry out quickly (trying to avoid spring muds).   The south-facing slopes of Bachelor Hills, the Lac du Bois lower slopes, the Dewdrop area, the {now unamed by request] Trail, and a few others offer hiking in early March.   Even where snow still covers the ground, the first wildflowers start to emerge.   Which one is first?

The first appearance in both the grasslands, the dry slopes, and in the ponderosa pines is the Sagebrush Buttercup.  It is a perennial that has yellow flowers that brighten up the winter-bleached hillsides.   We know winter is over as teh flowers bloom and multiply.   In our area, the bloom is over by the end of spring and the above-ground vegetation withers in the summer heat.   More showy flowers succeed and other members of the buttercup family also bloom in the spring and summer.   Sage buttercup is poisonous.   Indigenous people used the toxin in their arrowheads to hunt.   But the Sepwepemc also celebrated the arrival of the buttercup as the sign that spring had arrived.

Not long afterward, comes a delicate, drooping yellow perennial, the Yellow Bell.   It grows from bulbs.    As it ages, the flowers turn orange.   Indigenous peoples dug up the bulbs and ate them raw or cooked.   We purposely go to the Lac du Bois grasslands to see the first Yellow Bells of the season.

Bring your camera to welcome the first wildflowers of the season.