My family and I took a trip to Sam’s Point and the ice caves on Sunday morning. It was a beautiful drive from Ellenville up Route 52 to Cragsmoor Road and then a short drive to the visitor center run by The Nature Conservancy. We hiked the trails northeast to the ice caves but were dismayed by seeing acres of brown pitch pines. The Conservancy is in the process of finding out exactly what is going on. The following were seen in bloom along the trail:

Aralia nudicaulis – wild sarsaparilla
Gaylussacia baccata – black huckleberry
Maianthemum canadense – mayflower
Oxalis stricta – yellow wood sorrel
Photinia melanocarpa – black chokeberry
Potentilla simplex – common cinquefoil
Rhododendron canadense – rhodora
Rhododendron prinophyllum – hoary or mountain azalea
Sisyrinchium sp. – blue-eyed grass
Trientalis borealis – starflower
Trillium undulatum – painted trillium
Vaccinium angustifolium – early lowbush blueberry
Vaccinium corymbosum – highbush blueberry

– Steve Young