Bottom Line:
Sage Hills in the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust is always reliable as a spring flower hike with easy access from downtown Wenatchee. You can often see the yellow sheen of balsamroot coating the green hills from the city (less so this year). Flowers are past at the bottom (you will wonder whether balsamroot is over initially), but peak higher up, with a good mix that is hard to beat in the foothills. These trails permit mountain bikes. This area will dry out quickly in the next couple weeks. Little shade - wear sunscreen! What I love about this hike: the green hills with splashes of red/orange soil, and the orange/purple/white of balsamroot/lupine/phlox. CAUTION: Ticks and rattlesnakes.
Stats:
- Distance: 5-3/4 miles
- Vertical: 920 ft
- Duration: ~3 hours
- Road/Parking: The Sage Hills Trailhead off Day Dr North has room for 4-5 cars and does not require a parking pass. Overflow is about 1/4-mile down the hill on Fifth Street; there is no parking in the neighborhood between and violators will be towed. No toilets.
- Weather: Sunny and warm, 70-80Fs, no wind, a couple puffy clouds. Harsh mid-day light was not ideal for photography, but the bright puffy clouds hanging over the hills provided nice contrast. Sunrise should be good here; the hills would be shaded for sunset.
- Water: There is no water available on this trail; carry water
- Flowers: Oodles of balsamroot, lupine, biscuitroot and phlox, especially in the drainages. The balsamroot at the bottom is looking very ragged with bleached tips, but it better higher up and in the drainages. Lupine is prolific and at peak. As you head north, there is more and more phlox. Like other recent hikes (Cashmere Hills, Lewis Butte), there is a fair amount of balsamroot that is fully grown but did not bloom at all, likely due to the seesaw weather. The flowers are consequently not as dense this year, unlike The Gorge (Sevenmile Hill) where the bloom is pretty outstanding. Among the flowers seen: balsamroot, sagebrush false dandelion, triteleia, yarrow, biscuitroot, phlox, Dorr's sage, desert yellow fleabane, woodland-star, desert parsley, fiddleneck, Oregon grape and lupine.
- Trail: Trails are in good condition, although dusty. We almost stepped on what we thought was a rattlesnake, but given no rattle, it was likely a bull snake (scared me nevertheless!) A pole to tap the ground in front of you is always a good idea. Sage Hills connects to adjacent preserves to extend the hike - maps are available on the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust website. The trails are open to mountain bikes, although he would saw a handful, and riders are super courteous. The trail is very exposed, although there are ponderosa trees at the top of the hill (easier to access from the Horse Lake Reserve side). The power lines that traverse north-south along the Sage Hills hike are a little bit of an eyesore if that kind of thing bothers you.
- Takeaway: The trails are getting better and better for mountain biking, if a little less so for hikers (as deeply-cut, berm-ed flowy trails have been added in recent years). I guess I need to go with the flow (sic) and try the trails out with my mountain bike, although in flower season I just prefer to slow down and enjoy the beauty of these trails :) I might be spring-flowered-out now... time to explore the melting alpine lakes via packraft!
There are higher resolution pics available at the Instagram link below (compression here is causing sky banding in some pics below).
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