Snow Trilliums at Cedar Creek

Are you desperate for spring?!? I am! We headed to Cedar Creek Park yesterday, where I had read that some of the very earliest wildflowers of all are to be found, the rare snow trillium. We were not disappointed!

I had never seen them before. They are teeny weeny, and we only saw perhaps a few dozen scattered around. It was not a blanket of wildflowers by any means. But they did my heart good! And we even spotted a bee taking advantage of the early blooms. There were also plenty of sharp lobed hepatica curling up through the leaf litter and reaching for the sun. The trail also featured two interesting historical markers, and some nice bridges and views of some massive icicles lingering in the 60º weather. 

If you go, don't wait! Snow trilliums are fleeting. Do make use of the nice map on the park website. You will notice that there are three creeks which flow into the Youghiogheny River. The short trail that loops  around the northernmost creek is the trail we walked. This one may be the Cedar Creek for which the park was named. The northern half of the loop follows near the elevation of the creek bed, and a few tufts of grass and some moss were the only green in evidence. We returned by the southern portion of the loop, which winds along the top of a ridge. That is where we began to see the snow trillium and hepatica. I suspect they prefer wooded slopes with more drainage than the area near the creek bed. We spotted one lone woman fishing in the river, but did not check if the awesome worm vending machine at the parking lot was stocked. 

Snow trillium.

Sharp lobed hepatica.