Most of my entries about Crater Lake have taken the form of travelogs concerning particular hikes or aspects of my time there.
 Now I'll try some botany. The flowering season in an alpine region is short but intense and the varied plantlife wastes no time in proliferating.
 Here are some of the more common wildflowers I saw. It's a challenge for me nonetheless to identify with certainty because nearly all the plants are endemic to North America. I know there are readers of this dairy who know their plants so suggestions and corrections are welcome!

 Case in point Lupins pop up all over the place in open woods and meadows. A few varieties and cultivars have made it to the UK as a garden plant (and occasional naturalised escape) but my field guide lists 32 varieties that are found in the Pacific-Northwest. Some look very similar and no doubt some hybridise.
 I'm pretty sure the common type I saw around Crater Lake is the Broadleaf Lupin (Lupinus latifolius) with variations in colour on the spectrum of purple/magenta/blue/white.

 There are even more varieties of Penstamon to choose from. The one I saw in great numbers is I think P. rydbergii. If so my field guide (Wildflowers of the Pacific-Northwest) states that this variety is particular to the Crater Lake area.

 I saw large stands of Polygonum bistortoides known as Western or American Bistort growing in several moist, marshy areas.
 The out of focus yellow flowers in the background of the top photo are as I recall a Ragwort (or Groundsel as Americans call it) i.e. a Senecio species, possibly Bog Groundsel (S. triangularis).

 Growing alongside the Bistort and liking the same conditions is Elephant's Head Lousewort (Pedicularis groenlandica) according to my book. I will not pretend I know one Lousewort from another!

 Western Pacific Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa) is easier to identify being a relative of Dicentra spectablis which has long been cultivated as a garden plant in the UK. Big clumps grow out of crevices and among boulders, much frequented by bees.

 Phlox diffusa grows in open areas. I noticed a distinctly pink form and a paler almost white variation.

 Two varieties of Eriogonum I think, which are also called Wild Buckwheats. The one with the white flower looks like E. pyrofolium which has the wonderful common name Dirty Socks.  
 E. marifolium looks to be a good match for the one with yellow flowers. Again this is specific to Crater Lake according to my field guide. Both grow in well drained sandy/pumice soil.

 I can see why the common name for this fiery genus is Paintbrush. This appears to be Castilleja applegatei subsp. pinetorum aka the Wavy-leaved Paintbrush. I saw it growing in dry, gritty spots.

 The yellow flowers alongside a gushing creek are I would think some kind of Potentilla, quite possibly Sticky Cinquefoil (P. glanduloso). I don't seem to have an in focus shot of the blue flowers in the second photo, not sure what they are.
 To be honest I was so entranced by this spot that I was looking at it more as a picture than as botany. It is indeed interesting to identify plants and take photographs but really the moment is the thing. In fact when I'm hiking I sometimes make a point of putting the camera away for periods of time so I don't get into the habit of only experiencing my surroundings through a viewfinder.
 Having said that I will aim to supplement this entry with id on some of the other species I photographed. The above were abundant in their favoured habitats but there were others I saw only once or occasionally which suggests they might be rarer.

 After 10 days in the Crater Lake National Park it was time to return to civilisation. July 21st. to be precise, almost a month ago now (tempus fugit).
 The good people who run the shuttle bus took me back to Klamath Falls and got me to the Amtrak station about 4 in the afternoon. The overnight train south wasn't due till 10pm so I walked around the town for a while, had a bite to eat in a deli and was reminded that small town America looks a lot like I think it does.
 Then I parked me and my rucksack on a bench on the platform and watched the sun go down over the hills. Every now and then a big old Union Pacific freight train would come clanging by.
 Jack Kerouac used to work as a brakeman on the Pacific railroad. I think I saw him in the distance.

 My friends James and Komoot live in the Sunset district in San Francisco. Walk about 15 blocks to the west and you hit Ocean Beach looking out to the Pacific. I walked here on the last morning of my trip to the States (July 26th.).
 Kenneth Rexroth the great poet, translator and essayist based himself in San Francisco for most of his life. He once noted that anyone who came this far from the east and the "old world" must have really wanted to get away from something. Before the beats, hippies and other sub-cultures there were bohemians and radicals of all persuasions, not to mention the "huddled masses" (and the Native Americans who were here already).
 On a previous trip way back when I remember standing on the roof of James' apartment having traveled from New York. Looking out towards the sea I had a sense of being at the end of a whole continent, or the beginning...

                                 Wayside weeds/wildflowers garland a road sign.

 Postscript to my last post. I passed through Blakeny on the Norfolk coast on my walk last Sunday. Sea Lavender is not the only thing that grows on the marshes. I couldn't resist buying a bunch of freshly picked Samphire on the quayside- £1.50 in the blue honesty box.
 I cooked it the following evening- one of the most delicious things I've eaten all year. Lovely texture and a sublime salty taste.   

 Sea Lavender (Limonium vulgare) blooms along the salt marsh coast of north Norfolk in August. I took a walk along the coast path on Sunday from Stiffkey to Blakeney then on to Cley and saw plenty of it.
 It's an eye opener to visit a far off place like Oregon but we have some remarkable landscapes here in the UK. This shoreline is one of those areas where the high tide rolls out for miles revealing a landscape of marshes, mudflats and creeks. The horizon is a long way off and the marshes stretch into the distance under a big sky.
 Along the way drifts of Sea Lavender cast a violet-blue haze among the tough, tufty grasses.

 Memories of Crater Lake in no particular order. As mentioned in my first entry on the subject (posted 28th. July) when I arrived I discovered the backcountry was still covered in snow after a particularly heavy winter.
 One of my favourite expressions is "Necessity is the mother of invention". I based myself at the Mazama backpackers site for a few nights and considered other possibilities. If not for this I probably wouldn't have hiked along the East Rim Drive which proved to be a classic for both views and wildflowers.
 The East and West Rim Drives form a circular route around the upper elevations of the crater (approximately 8,000 feet above sea level- enough to make the ears pop!). A complete circuit was blocked by snow but I was able to hike the East Rim Drive to Vidae Falls where I connected with a gravel track known as the Greyback Road.
 The East Rim Drive cuts through areas of rockface and shale; I imagine some serious blasting and quarrying would have been required to open parts of this route. As mentioned in my entry posted 1st. August there are many wildflowers that flourish in moist conditions but on this hike there was a varied selection of plants that find their niche in dry, rocky habitats (see below).
 Along the way a number of waterfalls cascaded down from the rocks, the most spectacular being Vidae Falls itself which must be over a hundred feet high. These cascades gave me hope that the snow was melting fast in the heat. Thick snow in July and blazing hot sun are not a combination this Englishman is accustomed to!
 And so it proved: I was able to access the backcountry to the west only a day later but I am very glad I was obliged to take this detour to the east.

 

 Sifting through these memories of my trip to the States is proving to be an enjoyable postscript to my time there. Then again it's been nice to step out into the garden after a few weeks away.
 The back garden is very green but heavily shaded with surrounding trees by this time of year. Shade tolerant plants are largely spring flowering woodlanders but a few do their thing around now in spots where they get a bit of sun. Often as not these are plants that are native to other parts of the world that gardeners have sought out over the centuries to provide some colour as other plants start to wane.
 "Firetail" is a cultivar of Persicaria amplexicaulis and it is indeed a fiery crimson. In front of it the pink flowered Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) pops up cheerfully. Rubbing the leaves together does in fact produce a soapy froth, still used by the National Trust for cleaning tapestries.
 Fiery too the orange flowers of Montbretia (Crocosmia crocosimiflora), a bulbous plant that loves to multiply whether you want it too or not.
 The yellow flowers of Wild Rocket (Diplotaxix tenifolia) going to seed are beautiful in an untidy sort of way and big bumblebees love the small white or lilac flowers of Calementha nepata.
 The tall spires of the Chimney Bellflower (Campanula pyramidalis) have blue or in this case white flowers which they bear in great quantity. 
 The vivid red flowers on this variety of Honeysuckle (Lonernica periclymenum) bear out the advice always given as to where this climber should be planted: feet in the shade, head in the sun.
 Runner beans (Phaselous coccineus) were bought to this country in Tudor times as an ornamnetal plant. Later people noticed the beans and pods were good enough to eat! These are a popular old "heirloom" variety Scarlet Emperor.
 Finally, a characteristic sight at this point in the season: tall grasses illuminated by the mellow afternoon sun of late summer.
 And now my mind is wandering back to Oregon which will probably be the subject of my next entry in a day or two...
 

 Mount Shasta and Crater Lake are part of the Cascades, a volcanic region that runs through British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California. I was thrilled when someone pointed out the hazy outline of Mount Shasta on the horizon over a hundred miles away in northern California. This is where my backpack and I travelled to last year (top photo). So I was fascinated to learn that both Shasta and Crater Lake feature in the stories of the Klamath tribes.
 Crater Lake was formed by the eruption and subsequent collapse of the caldera of Mount Mazama around 7,700 years ago. Astoundingly this event is still referred to in the oral history of Native Americans in the area. In this mythology Llao is the Spirit of the Below-World and Skell is the Spirit of the Above-World.
 Llao broke through the earth at Mazama and rained down fire on the local people. Skell took pity on them and descended from the sky where he stood astride Mount Shasta. The two spirits fought a pitched battle hurling molten rocks at one another until Llao was driven back underground.
 Perhaps then this tale remembers not one but two volcanic eruptions? 

 There are bears around Crater Lake. I didn't see them but they probably saw me. The photo above shows the front paw print of a black bear which I noticed about 30 yards from my tent. Ants make small mounds of loose soil all over the place and the paw made a particularly clear impression by padding down right on top of one such mound. It happened one night when I was asleep though I do seem to remember being woken at some point by movement outside the tent so perhaps that was a nocturnal bear. 
 Fortunately there are no brown (grizzly) bears in this neck of the woods which are far more aggressive. Black bears rarely attack people and are generally very shy of human contact. There is a sensible regulation concerning backcountry camping: pitch the tent in one spot, cook in another spot away from the tent and keep food and scented items in a bear-proof canister away from both.
 A Park Ranger I spoke to last year made an interesting point when he said that if a bear takes your food it can be a death sentence for the bear.  They become addicted to human food and get bolder and bolder in trying to obtain it which may lead to them being put down. The campsite I stayed on the first few nights had a big sign at the front entrance: "There are bears in this campsite". Ironically there was perhaps more risk of encountering an aggressive bear there than when I camped out in the woods.
 Understandably several friends I spoke to were concerned about the risks associated with camping in bear country. I should think it's more dangerous to be in San Francisco (or London) where attacks by humans are quite common; also you have to exercise extreme caution if you encounter motor vehicles in their natural habitat. Statistically speaking my advice is to head out to the backcountry and take your chances with the bears: it's probably safer.
 Actually I did almost get eaten alive- by mosquitoes. For several days after the snow melted they were intense. Basically I had to be moving or in the tent; standing still or sitting in the open was not an option. At least a bear would have eaten me quick...     

                   To borrow a phrase from William Blake: "Heaven in a Wild Flower".