STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
The Sawtooth Botanical Garden will kick off its 15th season of Wildflower Walks with a stroll through the Camas Prairie and Centennial Marsh.
The free walk—on Thursday, May 23—will focus on the birds and botanicals of this area near Fairfield. Organizers hope to see plenty of blue camas blooming, turning the marsh into a sea of blue.
Birder Poo-Wright-Pulliam will train participants’ sights on birds, while Ann Christensen points out bugs and butterflies. The wildflower specialists for this walk, as well as walks in June and July are naturalist Jeanne Cassell, botanist Cynthia Langlois and the botanical garden’s AmeriCorps volunteer Kim Chaplin
The walk will begin at 9:30 a.m. that morning at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden, four miles south of Ketchum at Highway 75 and Gimlet Road. Participants will carpool to the site to reduce the group’s environmental footprint, with plans to return to the garden about 2 p.m.
Participants may also meet the group at the Timmerman Hill rest stop by the blinking light nine miles south of Bellevue at 10 a.m. or at the Bannock War historical marker west of Fairfield on Highway 20 at 10:30 a.m.
Additional Thursday wildflower walks will follow on June 13, 20 and 27 and July 11, 18 and 25. They will head to local destinations, such as Taylor Canyon, Fox Creek, Adams and Greenhorn gulches and out East Fork.
Those walks will start at 9:30 a.m. and return to the garden at about 2 p.m., with the schedule posted at sbgarden.org/wildflower-walks/. Destinations will be determined in the days leading up to the walks depending on what’s blooming where.
Wildflower walks will be within easy walking distance.
Participants should wear sturdy walking shoes, appropriate outerwear, sunscreen and a hat. It’s helpful to bring water and lunch. Walks are usually appropriate for children ages 7 and older, but organizers ask that you leave Fido at home.
To ask questions or make reservations, call 208-726-9358.