Photography by Joann Fricke
Bluebells and celandine poppies along the Johnson Trail
Every season dangles its own lure for hikers, and after autumn’s blaze of color and winter’s frozen beauty, it’s time for spring’s wildflowers. Saturday, April 14, is the annual expert-guided wildflower walk along the easygoing Johnson Trail at Salt Lick Point Land and Water Reserve.
"The celandine poppies, Virginia bluebells and false rue anemonie usually steal the show in spring," says Joann Fricke, membership chair of the Clifftop Alliance conservation group that cosponsors the walk, "but you might also see blue phlox, dwarf larkspur, various species of waterleaf, blue and yellow violets, Dutchman's breeches, dogtooth violets, bloodroot, and one of my favorites, jack-in-the-pulpit."
Free and open to all, the walk is flat and follows the base of the bluffs,
Photography by Joann Fricke
A swath of bluebells, one purple trillium in the center
winding past limestone boulders. Many of the wildflowers grow in the talus (the sloping mass of rocky fragments at the cliff's base). For the guided walk, meet at 9 a.m. in the parking lot, 1309 Limestone Lane in Valmeyer, Illinois. Or wander on your own between 9 a.m. and noon, stopping at interpretive stations so guides can point out the shyer of the species in bloom.
Other good local spots to hunt beauty:
- The Meramec Greenway’s Rock Hollow Trail is famous for its bluebells and other spring wildflowers.
- At Cliff Cave Park, all sorts of wildflowers bloom along the Mississippi River bluff and rocky hillside.
- Just past the Little Creve Coeur Wetland, in an array of shallow wetlands and prairie named for Princess Memetonwish, you’ll find native prairie grasses and wildflowers.
- Castlewood State Park has wild sweet William, violets, and along the River Scene Trail, bluebells galore.
- If you feel like venturing farther, there are rare wildflowers along the Chinquapin Trail at Table Rock State Park.
- And at Mastodon State Historic Site, the Wildflower Trail takes you past Callison Memorial Bird Sanctuary, which teems with wildflowers, to the Kimmswick Bone Bed, the spot where scientists first realized that American mastodons lived alongside humans 12,000 years ago. (They probably liked wildflowers, too.)
