Lake Padden is in a popular recreation area south of Bellingham and in the Chuckanut Mountains. The lake itself is of little interest to me, since the area around it is little more than a city park, but to the southwest of the lake, between it and Interstate 5, there is a wooded ridge whose trails I hiked the afternoon of May 24th.
I found several native orchids, the Western Spotted Coralroot and the Striped Coralroot, and found a few Western Fairy Slippers as well, one of which I photographed. The ridge was one of the best sites I've found for Striped Coralroots. I found some yellowish plants there but not the yellow-stemmed form I hoped to find.
There were not a lot of wildflowers blooming beside the orchids. I photographed three, a very pale Pacific Bleeding Heart, the Pacific Waterleaf, and the Leafy Mitrewort. I also found one Fly Agaric mushroom and some that I believe to be White Chanterelles, but I am not very good at identifying mushrooms and stand to be corrected.
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