Hunting Morel Mushrooms

Some of my earliest memories are of the family trips are when we were hunting morel mushrooms. Dad loaded us into the car and we drove to an Iowa woodland where we would scatter and search the forest floor for morels. We usually found some and dad would saute them in butter, after first giving them a light coating of flour.

Later Renita and I moved to Wyoming, and we found a few morels one spring, in the campground at Devils Tower Wyoming. They were on the forest floor along the Belle Fouche River, at the base of some dead cottonwood trees.

Approaching a nearby ranch we asked, and received permission and found the most morels we have ever found, three garbage bags full. What a joyous day! Returning to the ranch house we shared them with the owner, who didn’t seem to be excited about us giving her a third of what we found.

Becoming full time rvers we next found a few in a national park. We had gone to Mammoth Cave National Park in search of a sinkhole named Hunts Sink, (as we travel around the country we try to visit places that I taught in my Earth Science and Geology classes). and we found them near the sinkhole entrance. Another place we found some was when we camped at another private campground in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

I had heard of the tremendous numbers of mushrooms found, the year after a forest fire, and so when last year’s fires burned areas of nearby parks and forests. Our first search took place in late May, which seemed to early, and we never found any. It was only when we did our first show in Alpine that a friend told us that everyone had been picking them for the last two weeks.

Three days later we headed to the Shoshone National forest. We had camped there last year and a huge fire had blackened most if the forest in the lighting caused Lava Mountain burn. Stopping at a picnic area we talked with a couple of campers about mushroom hunting, and after viewing the falls we headed into the burn area.

Our first stop found us walking through a burned area, but without any success. Our friend George didn’t return right away, so I went hunting for him and as I searched for George I noticed morels by a burned tree! I also found where someone had harvested other morels.

Driving to another place I quickly found cut stems but I also found some mushrooms that had been missed. Calling to Renita, I told her that there were mushrooms in the area and after finding some more  we returned ot the truck when George showed us his first ever morels.

We drove to two more spots, that were covered with burned trees. but never found any more morels. All of us had noticed many new and large and moose tracks and scat. It was also a little weird trying to hunt mushrooms while keeping an eye out for grizzly and black bears.

We had found almost a gallon of mushrooms, and it was time to head back to our summer base camp. What a delightful day in the forest! I had been flooded with memories of long ago family hunts where my dad and my brother. Mike, had taught me woodcraft and plant identification, (I do better at rocks). Hunting the wild morels with our friends from Colorado was a new blessing and a new memory. The morels sure tasted great at dinner last night. Clear skies