Field Notes, 1/13/19: Ladybugs on Harsin Butte
It was hazy in the Wallowa Valley today—air stagnation warning, blue wood smoke, lingering fog over the river—and so, for our weekly Sunday Outing, my husband and I decided to head north, out to The Nature Conservancy’s Zumwalt Prairie Preserve, to hike Harsin Butte for fresh air and a view. We knew there’d be sun out there. We crossed our fingers that the road would be navigable. It was, more or less. We had to break out the tire chains, which were caked with mud and rust from an ill-fated adventure last spring in the mountains of Utah, but ask me about that some other time. Today, the butte.
We gunned through the drifts, turned into the Preserve, and coaxed the car across the prairie to the base of Harsin. We got out and stretched and began to make our way up the shadowy north slope. One elk called in alarm from the draw to the west... (Continue reading on the blog!)
