REECER CREEK BUTTERFLIES AND WILDFLOWERS- *Sundays with Sunny and Friends!
FULL DAY TOUR

Sunday, June 22

Email experience@evergreenescapes.com or call 206-650-5795 for reservations

Tour Length: 10 Hours
Tour Code: ES04
Pick-Up: Seattle City Hotels & Issaquah P&R
Departing: 8:00 a.m.
Returns: 6:00 p.m.
Activities: Butterfly and Wildflower Watching, Walking, & Educational Sightseeing
Difficulty: Easy
Carbon Footprint:
Min No of Passengers:

Inclusions:
Issaquah pick up and drop off; highly qualified and knowledgeable naturalist guide; travel in luxury vehicle; excellent casual lunch; selected fruit, energy bars, soda, juice, and tea; all entry and parking fees; and comprehensive commentary.

Description:
Enjoy this Sunday with tour guide Sunny Walter, professional wildlife photographer, nature photo tour leader, and co-author of “Washington Nature Weekends, 52 Adventures in Nature.” Our accompanying dragonfly expert is Dave Nunnallee, co-founder of the Washington Butterfly Association and long-time butterfly tour leader.

We are heading to Reecer Canyon north of sunny Ellensburg to visit one of the most prolific areas for butterflies in Washington. As June progresses, the wildflower and butterfly show slowly moves up the mountain. We will see more than 50 species of shrub-steppe wildflowers as we drive up Reecer Creek Road. Although the record for this area is 70 butterfly species, we expect to see 35 to 40 species today.

Our first stop is on Hwy 97 near a patch of coyote willow. Here we will see Hairstreaks, skippers and other lowland scrub butterfly species. As we drive up Lower Reecer Canyon Rd, watch for buckwheats along the side of the paved road, which attract small butterflies such as Hairstreaks, Coppers, and Blues.

We then switchback up Reecer Creek Rd, park our vehicle, and walk up an old gravel road to a leaking water tank and a natural seep. Here we will find nettles, penstemons, and mountain shrubs and hopefully some butterfly larvae (or caterpillars) which feed on them. We will look for Blues and other early butterflies. There may be as many as 100 butterflies here; we will likely see 10 to 15 species in this vicinity.

Our butterfly guide will provide enough nets so everyone can catch butterflies to take a closer look at them. He will show us the right way to catch them, as well as how to hold them with a special tweezers and put them in a jar so the delicate scales on the wings are not damaged. These scales create the wonderful colors and patterns observed in butterfly wings. We will have an opportunity to photograph several species before we release them, so bring your cameras.

After enjoying an excellent box lunch from “On Safari Foods,” we will visit more prime butterfly locations. Our quest for butterflies and wildflowers ends with a 2 hour drive back to Issaquah, arriving at the Issaquah P&R around 6:00pm.

For more information on natural history, species list, and itinerary, please click here

This tour can be customized as a private tour, call or email for a quote.