I have to say, this is not my favorite place for a hike, given that it is so close to the far more interesting trails in Temescal. Having said that, if you aren't committed to a real work out, and don't mind the surreal sounds of a Polo game in the background, this is a good option. The main trail in the park is a loop, up to Inspiration Point. Somehow, my friends and I got lost and never made it to the Point, but that is probably because I was taking too many pictures of flowers, of which there were a surprising number! The most exciting was the Pink Mariposa Lily (Calochortus plummerae), which has dense yellow hairs in its inner petals, and takes my breath away every time I see it. We also saw a large lizard scamper away that may actually have been something other than the usual western fence lizard... I need to consult my herp friends for the ID, but there is a blurry pic below. We also noticed strange foamy drippings from several Eucalyptus trees at the end of the trail, the cause of which remains a mystery. Googling "foam buble Eucalyptus" gives you suggestions such as "slime flux", a bacterial disease of trees that sounds pretty gross and weird. But, they aren't native, so maybe its ok if they get the slime flux..? An interesting question.
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Ok, I think I might have just had the best flower day EVER. I can't believe I had never been to the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve before!!! Its amazing, a truly beautiful place. The poppies were probably at their peak a week ago, but there were still so many hyper-saturated orange petals fluttering in the wind, it was dazzling. So much orange! Its like a burst of beta carotene burning straight through your retinas into your brain. But in a wonderful way :) The Reserve was pretty packed, which is kind of great-- I love when people are interested in nature, and engaging in funny things like flower tourism. To be clear, I am not just a poppy fanatic, I am a general wildflower fanatic. So we took a meandering path to get to the Reserve, winding along San Francisquito Canyon, to see a variety of blooms. This area is apparently infamous for the St. Francis dam disaster, which killed 600 people in 1928. But it also has some great blankets of purple lupines right now, and pretty but painful poodle-dog bush (immediate contact dermatitis if you touch the leaves). And blooming yuccas! Also around the Reserve, there were lots of other awesome species blooming: Goldfields, Lacy Phacelia, Tidy Tips, Fiddlenecks, and Douglas Locoweed. Check out the pics below for scientific names. We drove home a different way, on Highway 14, and stopped at Placerita Canyon Nature Center, which is another hidden gem in the area. I was tired and lazy, so asked the woman at the gift store where to find wildflowers. She didn't think there were too many, but suggested the "Ecology" trail… and it was packed with lovely flower surprises. I found an elegant Clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata, to the left), a flower I have never seen before, and one that has always intrigued me with its super-extended anthers. It looks like a work of art! Also blooming (and pictured below): black sage, woolly blue curls, scarlet bugler, wishbone bush, holly-leaved cherry, monkey flower, and another Phacelia species. Its just getting cool enough now, in mid-November, to start hiking again. So I decided to check out a hike we did in May, and see how the views and wildflowers had changed. The yuccas all had cool seed pods, and the California buckwheat flowers have turned a rust-brown color that makes the hills look kind of autumny. There were also a ton of birds out and about, checking out berries on shrubs. Apparently the yucca species in the Santa Monica Mountains is Yucca whipplei, which is pollinated by the female moth Tegeticula maculata. W.P. Armstrong of Palomar College describes this amazing relationship in intimate detail here, but basically the female moth lays her eggs into the ovary of the yucca flower, before depositing many bundles of pollen onto the flower's stigma, thereby pollinating the flower and providing food for her larvae, which will grow over the next several months inside the ovary and consume a portion of the developing seeds. Its fascinating when plant-pollinator relationships have an underlying layer of uneasy complexity (i.e. pollinator is also a seed predator) between the mutualistic partners! Below are some other images from the hike. Warning: this hike inspires cliches. Getting to the trailhead requires driving to the end of Corral Canyon Rd, off the PCH in Malibu. This drive might be worth the trip alone, with its exhilarating hairpin turns (cliche 1). But the trails awaiting you at the end of the road are definitely not to be missed. These include a truly awesome ridge hike connecting you to the Backbone trail, and forays into the mountains and riparian areas around the trail-head. The views and sandstone outcroppings are phenomenal (cliche 2). May is a lovely time to go, since the yucca are blooming and so many insects are out pollinating flowers and filling the air with a symphony of sounds (cliche 3). Besides the yucca, California buckwheat was also in full bloom, and the black sage was just starting. Yesterday we drove way up Highway 2, the Angeles Crest Trail, and took a hike in Cooper Canyon. It was beautiful! Lots of lupine and yucca blooming, and the conifers up there (about 6500 feet) are amazing!! Doesn't seem like LA at all... the trail, which you can reach from the Buckhorm campground parking lot, follows a river until you scramble down a hill with the help of a rope, and hit a 25 foot waterfall. There were lots of kids playing in the cold water. We saw a few really cool things, a snakefly (weird insect in the order Neuroptera, with a long thorax), and a snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea), a red parasitic plant that takes nutrients from fungi living underground. |
AuthorI like nature! And hiking, and taking pictures, especially of nature. Archives
September 2014
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