Best Wildflower Hikes: Washington (Best Hikes)

* Guidebook to 50 wildflower species and the trails by which you can find them in Washington

* Hikes include charts listing trails by featured flowers, peak viewing times, and more



Best Wildflower Hikes Washington offers 50 hikes from Washington's ocean beaches to its high alpine terrain and the lowlands in between. Wildflowers reveal their glory only once a year, and this guidebook will tell you where and when you're most likely to find them. Included wildflowers range from the ephemeral (thus rarely seen) Lewisa Tweedyi to common trilliums. You'll enjoy hikes through meadow flowers (from Sitka Valerian to Columbine), flowers of the forest (from Pink Pyrola to Wild Ginger), and plants and flowers you'll see on beach trails.



The guidebook includes sidebars on flower habitat and color maps and photos illustrate each hike. A separate section presents in-depth profiles of 50 flowers, including common and Latin botanical names, distinguishing features, where they are commonly found, conditions in which they thrive, accompanying vegetation, their growth and propagation habits, and historical uses (culinary, medicinal, etc.).

Photographer and writer IRA SPRING'S crisp, breathtaking images of the Northwest wilderness have been inspiring outdoor enthusiasts for several decades. His creative stamp can be found in more than forty books on the outdoors, including Mountaineers Books' titles such as, An Ice Ax, A Camera, And A Jar of Peanut Butter. Ira Spring was also one of the original contributers to the 100 Classic Hikes series. One of the Northwest's most active trail lobbyists, Spring was given the 1992 Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Award for his volunteer efforts toward trail preservation and funding.

Craig Romano is an avid hiker, runner, kayacker, and cyclist. He is the author of Best Hikes with Dogs Inland Northwest, Columbia Highlands: Exploring Washington's Last Frontier, as well as Backpacking Washington, Day Hiking Columbia River Gorge, Day Hiking Olympia Peninsula, Day Hiking: North Cascades, Day Hiking Central Cascades, and Winter Hikes of Western Washington Deck. Craig lives in Mount Vernon, Washington.

KAREN SYKES was an avid hiker and scrambler who spent close to fifty-two weekends a year exploring the mountains of Washington in a quest for off-the-beaten-track experiences. She also wrote a weekly hiking column for the "Getaway" section of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Karen passed away in 2014.