We explored the Cascade foothills, which are smaller volcanically formed landmasses. Unlike the area in the Puget Sound, the hills and landscape was not formed by a glacier. The tops of some of the hills had more jagged tops than those that can be seen around Seattle, due to the fact that there weren't glaciers eroding the hills into softer, rounder shapes.
This picture may not be the best example of "jagged" but it certainly has a different feel than what is seen in Seattle. This area gets around 20 inches of rainfall per year and is much dryer than the West side of the Cascades. The dominant color around here was tan and grey-brown. Many short shrubs cover large surfaces of the hillsides and spread themselves out to cover large surface area to compete for sunlight and water.
Many of the trees in this area grow at the bottom of valleys, a very logical adaptation since that's where all of the water goes. The trees that live in the valleys can collect water that runs down the hills during rain and storms. Very lush greenery can be seen in many of the valleys in the foothills. Also note how on the hillside in the photo there are few if any shrubs growing on the hillside, this is an area that doesn't get much sun, so the shrubs grow on the other sun facing side in order to collect as much sunlight as possible.
The Eastern side of the Cascades has many different plants from the Western side, but it also has some familiar ones. I spotted several species that I recognized while there.
The familiar Tall Oregon Grape
In the same picture as above, the yellowing tree is a Black Cottonwood a tree that enjoys wetter areas, it is in the perfect location for this area, by a river in a valley. Soaking up lots of water.
Another familiar family that I noticed was the Willow, this one is a shrub that is growing close to the ground. I was able to identify it quickly because of it's distinctive long, pointy leaves.
Willow
The foothills are located in the Ponderosa Pine zone, and several can be seen intermixed with Aspen trees in this photograph
Tall green Ponderosa Pine and yellowing Quaking Aspen
The plants that made this area interesting are the dry shrubs and unfamiliar trees. The first shrub that we encountered was Rabbit Brush, a smaller shrub with soft bunched leaves that resemble rabbit tails, although apparently the shrub was named as such because people have witnessed rabbits living or sitting underneath the shrub.
Rabbit Brush
The next shrub we found was much more interesting to me. The shrub is called Tall Sage Brush, and it grows very slowly. So if you find a larger one it could be a hundred or so years old or older. Tall Sage Brush has many tiny leaves all bunched together. I think that the leaves grow this way so that the plant can catch rain or moisture from the air and have it drip down to it's roots, but also as a way to combat wind and keep itself from drying out or being blown over. The brush has a very strong smell that might deter animals from eating it. It smells kind of bitter and a little sweet.
Tall Sage Brush
The final shrub we found in this area is called the Serviceberry, medium sized shrub that grows red berries. It didn't have any berries on it when I observed it. The shrub has small ovular leaves and was living at the base of a hill in a good spot to receive a decent amount of water.
Serviceberry
We discovered three unique organisms to this area during our visit, the first a large, colorful spider sitting comfortably in the middle of it's web. I was not able to identify the spider using my field guide but I got some very nice pictures of it.
Spider front view
Spider back view
While I was hiking up the trail with my spot buddy Sean, he jumped and yelled loudly when he noticed that he'd stepped on a dead snake (Sean is very afraid of snakes) a medium sized snake it was, it turned out to be a young Rattlesnake that had been killed.
The Rattlesnake
The snake has a beautiful green and white pattern all over it's body serving as an excellent camouflage in the dry foothills. The snake's rattle can be seen in the above photo, the tail is on the left side of the image. Our professor, Tim was eager to inspect the snake and show us some of the creature's finer details. The Rattlesnake is a viper and has a uniquely shaped angular head and a venomous bite. This snake was still young and had very small needle-like fangs, nothing as scary as the long, sharp fangs of a fully grown Rattlesnake.
The most entertaining organism of the day was by far the Song Sparrow That I got to help capture with the professor and the TAs. We set up a thin, soft net between two poles on a trail, along with a stuffed sparrow as bait, and played bird calls through a speaker to enrage any males in the area and have them swoop down at the bait bird to make it flee their territory. Within about ten minutes a bird flew into the net. Tim eagerly ran over to grab it and then showed it off to the class as well as explaining some bird holding and measuring techniques to us.
Song Sparrow
The song sparrow of the Eastern Cascades has different brown markings on it's chest than Western song sparrows do. An interesting fact that does not have an explanation currently.
After taking down the net the class piled back into the cars and we drove off to Umptanum Ridge. An area with darker foothills and more rocks and small ground shrubs.
The view from Umptanum Ridge
The shrub that populated much of the ground was Thyme Desert Buckwheat a shrub with a thick stalk and roots to keep itself anchored in the ground and to protect itself from wind. This hardy plant can withstand a harsh environment because its small and holds water well.
Thyme Desert Buckwheat
While at Umptanum ridge we spent much of our time overturning rocks in hope of finding scorpions, but unfortunately we had no such luck.
Our next stop on the trip was to a wetter area of the Ponderosa zone, a nice, relaxing waterfall hike. Much of the plant life on the hike was Quaking Aspen a tree that is considered to be the largest organism on the planet because it reproduces by cloning itself and shooting up new trees out of the ground to cover a large area. All of the trees share the roots of an original tree. The Aspen trees were beginning to yellow and were a truly magnificent addition to the already unique scenery in the Eastern Cascades.
Quaking Aspen
Quaking Aspen on the hillside
I was so tired by the end of the hike that I forgot to take a picture of the waterfall. The rocks that the waterfall was flowing over was volcanic in origin, a formation known as columnar basalt. It forms in columns and when cut has a multi-sided shape, like a hexagon or an octagon. The columnar basalt at the waterfall was cut into two sections, with an area that appears to have once had a waterfall running over it. We theorized that the waterfall that used to be there eroded the rock so much that it cut it away so that it appears to just mesh with the hillside.
The trip was lovely and a nice change of scenery from the cold wetness of Seattle. I had a ton of fun and got to bond some more with friends I'd made on the Mount Rainier trip.
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