Alpine Garden

Hey! Have you taken the time to smell the alpine azaleas this spring? Everyone gets excited about smelling the roses, but wild flowers are better. And wild flowers, like the alpine azalea, that grow on the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire are the best of all.

June is prime time for wild flower hiking on Mount Washington. It's when the greatest numbers and greatest variety of plants are in bloom.

There's no one magic moment to see everything at its finest. Your best bet is to plan several trips to the summit starting in early June, ending around the 4th of July. That will give you the best shot at seeing all there is to see.

I've just returned (literally -- my thighs are still grouching at me) from the top of Mount Washington. I spent a couple of nights at the Appalachian Mountain Club's Lakes of the Clouds hut and one day hiking with a wonderful group of wild flower enthusiasts led by naturalist Nancy Ritger.

Hiking on my own one day, I couldn't help but notice the showiest of the alpine flowers. Diapensia were everywhere, beautiful constellations of little white stars on the carpets of green among the sedges and grasses that cling to life on the thin soils of this harsh alpine environment. Equally showy, though less numerous, were the bright magenta flowers of the Lapland rosebay. I also spotted some little pink dots that I couldn't identify.

But I'm amazed at how much I missed. Unless you have the most amazing patience, and the discipline to keep looking at what you don't understand, you miss a lot of what's there to see. To find alpine wild flowers, you have to keep your eyes open and be aware of the world around you. Having a naturalist along certainly helps.

Take those little pink dots. Hiking along the aptly named Alpine Garden trail with Nancy Ritger's trained eyes in the lead, I learned that those little pink dots are alpine azaleas. If you are willing to forego your dignity, get down on your hands and knees and stick your nose right down in them, they smell wonderful.

Nancy also pointed out and put names to mountain avens, Bigelow's sedge, deerhair sedge, alpine bluets (which, unlike their lowland cousins, have beautiful bright yellow centers), bunchberry, lowbush blueberry, crowberry, bearberry, mountain cranberry, false hellebore, and rhodora. We also saw the rarest of the rare, Robbins or dwarf cinquefoil, which only grows here. The plant community that grows on top of the very highest mountains is unique. To find their like in lower elevations, you'd have to travel north to Northern Quebec, Labrador and Newfoundland.

Nancy identified the lichens growing on the rocks, pointed out the differences between spruce and fir in the krimmholz (low-growing trees twisted) and called our attention to the ferns and other plants growing beneath them. She alerted us to the calls of pipits, white-throated sparrows, and juncos which nest in the alpine zone at this time of the year. We saw and she identified a sharp-shinned hawk that floated overhead.

Admiring alpine wild flowers means getting yourself to some of the most beautiful scenery on earth, then tearing your eyes away from the expansive views of open sky and far-away horizons to focus in on the nearby and small.

But it's so worth it.

Learn As You Go

The best way to encounter the wild flowers in the alpine zones of Mount Washington (or anywhere else for that matter) is to hike. But if you aren't able to hoof it all the way to the top on your own, you can drive your car or catch a van ride up the Mount Washington Auto Road. The Cog Railway is another option to get to the top without hiking.

But I'd recommend hiking it if you can. 

The AMC conducts several guided hikes every year. These are a terrific way to stretch both your mind and your legs. Your leader will help keep you on the right path and out of trouble and point out all the things you might have missed on your own.

If you do go on your own, all of the AMC huts also have naturalist programs most evenings. These are a good introduction to the environment around the huts, though they are much more limited in scope than the naturalist-lead hikes. But if you happen to be staying at the huts, they will help you learn more during your stay.

Be sure to take a nature guidebook if you're hiking alone. There are lots of them out there. For the high White Mountains, the best is the compact AMC Field Guide to New England Alpine Summits by Nancy G. Slack and Allison W. Bell.

I'm also very fond of the book Spring Wildflowers of New England by Marilyn J. Dwelley, published by DownEast. It has detailed drawings instead of photographs, and is arranged by the color of the flower. 

Go Carefully

Mount Washington is a formidable place, especially for an inexperienced hiker. Almost every year, someone dies on its slopes. The weather can change in an instant, and often for the worse.

Even if you are driving your own car up the auto road and just going out for a short stroll, be sure to carry some insulating layers and some rain gear. When a cloud rolls in and turns the entire summit to pea soup fog, a map and compass can save your life if you have them with you and know how to use them.

Go Gently

The vegetation on Mount Washington is tough enough to withstand the worst weather in the world -- but it isn't tough enough to stand up to human feet.

Stay on the trails while you look and, wherever possible, step on rocks, not plants. The lichen on the rocks is generally tougher even than a boot sole.