Eastern Washington Field Trip
Mostly Sunny and Warm
Today our class went on a day field trip to eastern Washington just on the other side of the cascades we were not all the way in eastern Washington but in a unique location on the canyon river road between Ellensburg and Yakima. Our trip consisted of 3 stops and each one had a unique ecosystem. The trip was very fun and we learned a lot of new species as well as getting to experience a new ecosystem.The first stop along the trip was at Untanum Creek, this spot had a long trail that went up along the creek bed of one of the feeder creeks for the Yakima river. It was very hot and there seemed to be a sense of protection as we were moving further into another canyon between two ridges. As we walked up the trail we got to learn a lot of species. Some of the ones that stuck out where the Sagebrush, Brittle-brush, Mountain Chickadee, Prickly Pear Cactus, Western Bluebird, and the Lazuli Bunting. As we worked our way up the path we stopped at multiple locations to look at the many different organisms that were around.
The second stop along the way was up near Manastash ridge and was high enough that you could tell there was significantly more exposure, the air was colder and the plants were all smaller and stiffer. One of the species that is very indicative of this area was the Stiff Sagebrush. This smaller more compact version of sagebrush is designed to thrive in the higher winds and more exposed high plateau like surface that we were on. In addition to this many other shrubs were composed of thicker stalks and more water resilient leaves. The way the vegetation was designed was to maximize its chance of survival in the hot desert like conditions of the summer and the snow and little rain fall of the winter, their were no trees to hide behind for this vegetation and this was apparent. There were however a few pockets of trees along the ridge in the distance and it was cool to see the different vegetation pockets that were determined by such simple things as aspect and slope. One of my favorite interactions at the second location was finding a Horned Lizard and I was lucky enough to catch him and show him to the class this was something that invigorated me and made me excited to be able to be out on the field trip and gave me a renewed sense of interest from a different perspective than just witnessing them.
Finally our last stop was at another small creek this time we had dropped some altitude and were on a slope that was facing the sun because there was enough light and water around for there to be trees. We followed this creek much further than the first one and came across a Gopher Snake, which we could not successfully catch. As we moved further down the creek the vegetation in the area would remind you of the west side of the cascades as it was so lush. There was Quaking Aspen which we learned is the biggest organism in the world and there was all sorts of familiar as well as unfamiliar vegetation lining the creek.
Overall the trip was very intriguing and I learned a lot, I felt like there is a whole different community of ecosystems and organisms on the other side of the mountains. It was amazing that we could see 3 completely different levels of vegetations in the same trip from the barren and exposed top of the ridge to the high shrubs of the Untanum Creek and then the nearly west side-esque creek that we closed our trip at. Below are some of the photos I got before my camera died, I would like to go back and get more pictures of the different species on the east side.
Sagebrush is a rounded gnarled shrub with small leaves that are 3 lobed on the tip. It is a fuzzy gray green and has a very sharp spicy district smell. The seems are brown and shreddy, in the fall it will bloom tiny yellow flowers and it is commonly found in steppes to higher elevation dry meadows. This is a very important shrub for the species of the area and provides both food and shelter for organisms.
The Fragile Prickly Pear or Prickly Pear Cactus is a flowering cactus we found a lot of these but only a few were in bloom. They have yellow greenish flowers with many petals and red staked stamen in the centers. It is commonly found east of the cascades in dryer areas and is in bloom from May-June.
Bitterbrush is a stiff bushy shrub with leaves very similar to that of the sagebrush in that they are 3 lobed but these leaves have more significant lobes and are rolled under the edges with white hairy undersides. Its flowers are funnel shaped with 5 petals and it blooms from april to june. If you find sagebrush you are likely to find this plant as well because they are both found on steppes, you may also find this shrub in some forests.
This species of butterfly is found near streams or mountainsides and meadows. It a pale blue almost grayish in color and has thin stripes or spots that are black. It is a low flying organism and we found this on because it first landed on my shoe then flew into the grass right next to us. In the photo to the left it is almost dead center and is outside the major shadow in the picture (almost looks like a rock) its color allowed it to blend in very well with the surroundings.
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