Flora and Fauna on the Canyon Creek Meadows Loop

On Monday I had the pleasure of visiting the lower meadows of Canyon Creek near Sisters, Oregon, thanks to my intrepid personal hiking guide--Globe Trekker Mary.

This moderate 4.5-mile loop takes you on a tour of a high alpine meadow of wildflowers, with bubbling Canyon Creek flowing through it. In addition, there are spectacular views of the jagged spires of Three Fingered Jack.

The wildflowers were a few weeks behind schedule but we still saw plenty of flora and some fauna too:

A fuzzy Cat's Ear flower...

A male Oregon Junco...

Indian Paintbrush...

Mountain Heather...

A tiny Silvery Blue butterfly...

And Bear Grass--something I had never seen before! It was EVERYWHERE and looked like giant fairy wands :

At first we thought this was a female Northern Flicker, but upon closer inspection we think it is a female Williamson's Sapsucker...

There was a merry band of Gray Jays...

And lots of lupine, paired here with manzanita...

Possibly the prettiest of all were the Shooting Star flowers!

At the highest points of the trail there were patches of snow! In July! Can you believe it? Here is my artistic interpretation of a snow shelf melting over a creek:

Thanks for visiting!

Directions to the trail: Drive Highway 20 east of Santiam Pass 8 miles. At a "Wilderness Trailheads" sign near milepost 88 (1 mile east of Suttle Lake or 12 miles west of Sisters), turn north on paved Jack Lake Road 12 for 4.4 miles. Then turn left on one-lane Road 1230 for 1.6 miles to the end of pavement, and finally turn left onto Road 1234, climbing 6 miles to the trailhead at the primitive Jack Lake campground.