Three of our local high school softball teams earned a trip to the Vermont State Championships, hosted at Castleton University on June 14-15. We had Friday and Saturday games, with an open window on Saturday morning; I knew just how to fill it! White Rocks and Ice Beds provided a welcome refreshment on a busy weekend. My husband Adam and I had a late night on Friday, but we managed to hike through all the cobwebs on the way to the junction with the Long Trail when we hit the trail Saturday morning.

That’s a good sign you’re the first ones out. On June 15, beautiful pink azaleas bloomed on the rugged White Rock lookout in Wallingford, VT. Spotting spring wildflowers trailside is one of my favorite things to do on spring hikes.

There was one particular flower I hadn’t seen during my spring hiking. White Rocks was so low, and the spring far spent that it never occurred to me I’d find what I was looking for on our morning wander. We reached the junction where the Keewaydin Trail joined the Long Trail and climbed along a gentle, wooded ridgeline.

From here, we came to a collection of jumbled white stones filling a clearing and turned onto the White Rock spur trail. The trail was filled with fabulous rocks and roots. Pink quartz-plated rocks caught my eye, and the exact flower I’d missed earlier on higher summits, a wild azalea, was out on this low-elevation gem, growing along the trail and out of crevices on the rugged cliffs.

The views were spectacular, and the terrain .