Volume III No. 2 - August, 1930

No flower of Crater Lake National Park elicits so many inquiries form observant tourists as the Pink Monkey Flower. It is one of the commonest flowers along the trail to the lake and along the streams of the Hudsonian Life Zone. Many times a day rangers and ranger naturalists alike are asked, "What is that bright pink flower about so high that blooms along the trail?" It is a pleasure to be able to say definitely that it is the Pink Monkey flower for there is no other pink flower "about so high" and "blooming along the trails and streamsides."

There are those who prefer to know the flowers by their technical names, and by those the Pink Monkey Flower is known as Mimulus Lewissi.

From time to time reports have come to us of wolves being seen in various places of the park. Owing to the vagueness of the descriptions of the animals seen, and the uncertainty of the authenticity of their source, little credence has been placed in those rumors.

About the middle of June a report of a wolf came to us which could not be doubted. Dr. Wiggam, Curator of the Dudley Herbarium at Stanford University and Professor Poultney, Head of the Science Department at the Humboldt State Teacher's College were closing field work in a meadow just above Park Headquarters, when a large timber wolf walked leisurely along the edge of the meadow carrying a marmot in his mouth. The observers had ample time to observe the wolf's movement, and owing to their scientific training and experience, no doubt can be entertained but that the animal seen was really a wolf.

This may be regarded as the first authentic record of a wolf being seen in the park since the Educational Division began operation here in the season of 1926.