Thunder Mountain, Alpine County

Key Reason to Go: If your timing is right (just as the snow is melting), find Drummond's anemone and Pursh's milk-vetch and Sierra primrose. Failing that, find lots of other stuff and enjoy the great views.

Best Time to Go: This can be hard to calculate! The plateau area is exposed to sun while we are waiting for access to Iron Mountain Road, the easiest way to get to Carson Spur. Iron Mountain Road is closed until July in a heavy snow year*, and taking Hwy 89 down from Meyers, then over Carson Pass to Kirkwood is a long haul, but that is the only way to get here before the good stuff is completely cooked.

*Note: Check the Eldorado National Forest page for current info.

In a year with average snowfall, you still want to go in May or June if you can. The nice alpine plants do bloom early, but then come all the neat Fabaceae and Asteraceae. In July there is a terrific hillside of Sierra primrose halfway up to Martins Point.

A Trip to an Interesting Plateau

The Thunder Mountain trail is one that will get your heart pumping. The trailhead is just a hundred yards shy of the Carson Spur sign on northwest side. As you drive past Silver Lake toward Kirkwood, watch for a trailhead sign at a pull-out to a small parking area. There is an interpretive sign and map. The trail starts at just under 8000' (GPS elevation given as 7980±) and the first mile takes you up to about 8700'. Initially the trail goes past the little pond and through red fir forest; you might (will) want some mosquito repellent handy! If you take some time to make your way around the pond for a closer look at a boggy environment, you will find a crop of nascent corn lily, plus loads of erigerons, mimulus, veronica, and plenty of common wet-area vegetation. Did I mention that you won’t need to search for mosquitoes?

Leaving the pond behind and entering the red-fir forest, keep your eyes open for orchids hiding in the dappled shadows. Spotted coralroot is pretty common in the dry duff. Note: 2006 was a banner year for Spotted coralroot; we found them at nearly every turn in the trail. We also came across one large group of some 18+ plants in a tight cluster! Quite surprising.

Just before you exit the forest cover and get your first view of Martin Point, the hillside at your left is a beautiful display of mule-ear (Wyethia mollis) and, in 2006, a quantity of Skyrocket ( Ipomopsis aggregata) and plenty of Coyote mint (Monardella odoratissima ssp pallida). As you break into the open area in another 100 feet, the open slope to the left is also a sea of Wyethia, but now it is punctuated by lupine (L. andersonii?), and many other small plants like arenaria, calochortus, and paintbrush, all adding their bits of color.

The odd structures on the hill crest are barriers to slow the winter wind and keep snow from building up over the highway below. Be sure to stop and look all around behind you as you ascend this section because the views are really wonderful, and you have an excuse to stop and suck in some air; it's a pretty good gain in a short distance. Believe it or not, you are about one-third the way already. It takes about 45 minutes to reach the first alpine plateau and the big landmarks known as the Sentinels (more on this in a minute.) As you get closer to the snow shields, and just before the trail angles into more forest shade, enjoy the moment to take in the view of this garden.

This picture was taken on 16 July '07. Look at the number of plants! This is a display that might almost be common at places like Carson Pass south to Winnemucca, or a few places north of the pass on the slopes of Little Round Top, but this show at Thunder Mountain is superb for a place so accessible. The places with flower shows like this all happen to be volcanic soils that hold sufficient water to keep plants thriving when other areas are drying out and withered, even in July.

Once past the big old juniper, the trail again goes into forest cover and continues climbing to the area where the two volcanic formations known as the Sentinels (or 'Les Gendarmes' if you happen to have Gladys Smith's 1973 Flora of the Tahoe Basin) watch over Kirkwood Lake and look across to Little Round Top and the mountains north of Carson Pass.

Once you are on the plateau area in the company of the now-massive volcanic tower, you will have plenty to look at and look for. Into July, Pursh's Astragalus might still be in bloom, but for a couple of years in a row now, the best I've managed is finding a few late flowers among the woolly white seed pods. Another plant that has to be caught earlier than July is Phlox condensata. The cushion plants are everywhere on this flat, but flowers are few. Still, as seen in the shot to the right, members of the Asteraceae family are abundant, particularly stenotus (Stenotus acaulis) and many woolly groundsel (Packera canus). Stenotus might look a bit like the Packera but stenotus grows in a mass of flowers while the Packera might be an individual or group of up to five. [Note: guidebooks will still list Packera as Senecio. This is a recent name change.]

Leaving the Sentinel behind, I wandered up the slope to where I expected to find anemone. I was happy to finally locate Drummond's anemone a few years ago when I followed a tip from the previously mentioned Flora of the Tahoe Basin that mentioned the flower was found "at the base of 'le Gendarme." Initially I read that tip as below the volcanic plug, maybe along Hwy 88? I searched and found nothing, so I figured I may as well hike up the trail. When I got to the plateau, I searched around the giant rock one more, finding nothing. I gave up and headed on up the hill.

Well, 100 meters up the trail, I found them. All over the place. In the trail. On both sides of the trail. The snow was still pretty deep in that spot but wow, the anemones were everywhere. I share this information in case you may have been trying to locate these hard-to-find flowers. You must go on this hike early (like no later than mid-July) to see them, and you must go past the Sentinel on to where the trail starts to turn west. The GPS location is 10S 0753316 | 4286799.

The anemone is in the Ranunculacae family, so it has no petals! The white parts are sepals, and look at the number of stamens!

Follow up: Another year, the trip on the same date (16 July), even after a year of heavy snow, was different because there was no remaining snow at all. While we still found anemones, they were on the decline.

We didn't take time to go higher up to check for Sierra primrose. Farther up the trail, just around a few tight switchbacks and in a ravine ahead of the trail, is a spot that—a few years ago—presented a large patch of magenta to my eyes as I stood there. It was the color that indicated either rock-fringe or primrose, and it was the primrose.

For the record, this last trip I found some primrose in bloom near the Sentinel, but too dangerously down-slope to need to try for a picture. At least we know that they bloom earlier than I had thought. Usually they seem more an August bloom.

Note: Primula suffrutescens is still in the family Primulaceae, but a few other local plants, Anagallis and Trientalis have been split off. Look at this page about Primulaceae and Mycinaceae.

Continuing up the trail past the anemones, you will ascend the slope while passing more interesting volcanic formations before reaching yet another open plateau. It was too late for some things, too early for others. We found very little in bloom in 2006) at this 8900-foot elevation, but the vista was quite worth the effort none the less. Every year is different. Go enjoy whatever you find.

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