Colorful Tumbleweed at Juniper
I usually think of tumbleweeds as the nuisance that starts flying around as the Tri-Cities wind kicks up, rolling across the freeway and getting caught under the car, only to scrape along the road for a ways until them crumble into pieces.
Or, maybe its the radioactive tumbleweeds you’ve read about at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
Or, maybe they pile up along your fenceline.
Well, there’s a little known beauty to the tumbleweed and now is the time of year to be on the lookout for it.
Blooming Purple Tumbleweed on Badger Mountain Canyon Trail
Tumbleweeds actually have a “flowering” stage. I’ve witnessed this in the last couple of weeks on my hikes at Juniper Dunes Wilderness area and at Badger Mountain. I’m not plant scientist but all I ever knew was dead, brown tumbleweeds. What a pleasure to see these purple beauties giving me another appreciation of the hidden beauty that surrounds us here in the Tri-Cities area.