Wildflowers are Central Oregon’s moveable feast.

As the snowline climbs in the Cascades and the Ochocos, a profusion of color ascends with it.

So the search for wildflowers can be a spring- and summer-long pursuit. Whether it’s your main focus or a momentary diversion on a long hike, finding and identifying wildflowers is fun. And in the local mountains, you’re never far from the meadows of summer and some serious blooms.

I’m partial to the Ochocos.

Big Summit Prairie, beyond the pass between Lookout and Round mountains, is a wonderful place to drink in the seasonal beauty. The big show is in spring, but wildflowers bloom across this flat expanse all summer long.

Indian paintbrush, lupine and yellow wyethia (among others) abound.

A drive to Big Summit Prairie invariably takes you through Prineville, where you can fuel up the car and grab some grub. Once you head east from town and enter the Ochoco National Forest, there are no filling stations, restaurants or convenience stores – just pine-clad mountains, lakes, streams, rocky outcrops and plenty of room to spread out.

The drive east along Highway 26 is a pleasant one. Ochoco Reservoir is about full after several drought years, and boaters are taking full advantage. At about milepost 35, you take the right fork toward Ochoco Ranger Station; the countryside goes from juniper habitat to a ponderosa pine/fir forest as you drive farther into the Ochocos. Turn right onto Road 42 just past the ranger station and follow it past Lookout Mountain and down into Big Summit Prairie.

The interior of the prairie is privately held and off-limits to the general public. But most of the land along the roads that circle Big Summit Prairie is administered by the Big Summit Ranger District of the Ochoco National Forest and the Prineville District of the Bureau of Land Management.

There are several gravel roads that snake off to the south and offer places to park, get out, stretch your legs and admire the flowers.

Forest Road 42 crosses the south section of the prairie west to east and continues back in to the National Forest. You can either turn around and go back the way you came or make a giant loop of it, following Road 42 (which becomes gravel about five miles on) to county roads 113 and 112 to Paulina. That road becomes State Highway 380, which takes you through Post and back into Prineville.

I don’t know of any specific field guides for the Ochocos, but there are a couple of general books that are good to carry, especially in the Cascades. ”Mountain Wildflowers of the Cascades and Olympics” by Harvey Manning features color photos of flowers of the meadow and forest you’re likely to come across in the high country to the west. ”Field Guide to the Cascades and Olympics” by Stephen R. Whitney and Rob Sandelin gives a fascinating overview of the geology, plant and animal communities of the region.

Check with the Ochoco Ranger Station (416-6645) for Big Summit Prairie wildflower information.