December 31, 2023: Columbia Hills & The Labyrinth (Columbia River Gorge, Washington)

I found some of the first flowers of 2024 on the last day of 2023. (It's actually not too weird to find a handful of plants blooming this early.) However, two weeks later, temperatures plummeted, snow fell... and the spring wildflower clock was reset back to something resembling "normal."

Columbia Hills

prairie star leaves
popcorn-flower leaves
Dalles Mountain buttercup
last year's balsamroot
woolly-pod milk-vetch leaves
Douglas' pincushion leaves
Gorman's desert parsley (salt-and-pepper)

The Labyrinth

first grass-widow of the season
small waterfall
rusty-hair saxifrage
last year's poison-oak berries
western buttercup leaves
common chickweed
The Labyrinth
Wanker's Columns & the Columbia River
water on miniature lupine leaves
yarrow
last year's Klickitat desert parsley
yellow monkeyflower leaves
fiddleneck leaves
Gorman's desert parsley (salt-and-pepper)
mosaic tile lichen
prairie star leaves
grass-widow leaves
last year's silver-leaf phacelia
ball of lichen and hair-cap moss
golden-aster
western polypody fern
sori of a western polypody fern
bald eagle

[Geolocation map]
All content is the property of Adam Schneider. If you'd like to use any of these images in an on-line or published work, contact me at schneider pobox com. Larger, un-watermarked versions of most photos are available.