Today, we decided to do something different an take a trip into the mountains near home, in search of huckleberries. I was hoping that we’d find enough for a cobbler and some jelly. The area we went to is only 8 miles from home, but the elevation is about 2,000 feet higher. We went there three years ago and got a huge amount of huckleberries. I knew that there were also wild blueberries there.
What I’d forgotten is that the year before last, there was a forest fire in that area. I’d not gone up there since the burn and it turns out that the fire burned in exactly the place where we were going.
Feverfew too
This was what we’d hoped to find
We were after huckleberries. Surprisingly enough, the huckleberry bushes survived and are coming back. However, without the dense forest, they are getting the full brunt of the summer sun. For the last three weeks, our temperatures have been between 88 and 103 F (31-39.5 C). There were plenty of berries, but they were dried from the heat.
We did find thimbleberries
We did find a bunch of thimbleberries, though. We picked about two cups. That doesn't sound like much, but it takes a lot of thimbleberries to fill two cups. I've previously written about thimbleberries. They aren't very big. I plan on using those that we've found in a batch of diabetic zucchini bread.
This is looking down on town
Our little town is located almost exactly in the center of this image. This is looking down from where we went to get huckleberries and when we last went here, you wouldn't have been able to see the town because of the trees and bushes. Only a few trees remain and most of them are Ponderosa pines, which are heat tolerant.
The bushes, alder trees, wild filberts, and birch are missing, except for a few seedlings that can't be seen in the images. The grassy area to the bottom right of this image wasn't there. It was all thick with huckleberries, wild blueberries, and thimbleberries.
closeup of town from eight miles
There was fireweed
There were chokecherries
We didn’t come back with what we went after
The barren ground in this image was a dense forest three years ago. The forest fire destroyed most of that forest, so we didn't come back with huckleberries. We did have a good time, though, and the dogs had a blast.
When we got down to the river, we had a picnic lunch and enjoyed the view. The dogs went swimming.
Wild garlic
I was also able to nibble on some wild garlic both in the high country and down near the river. It was growing all over the place, though not in large patches. I've we'd been camping, there would have been plenty for flavoring camp food. Of course, camping is out of the question. With the hot, dry weather, our fire danger is very high.
Big horns paid a visit
On the way to our picnic, four nice big horns blessed us with their presence, too. Before I could zoom in for more pictures, they walked down into a little depression, so they could barely be seen. I took some more pictures of them even then, but all that can be seen is the field of grass.
This is new as well, line mini daisies.