Natural History Wanderings

Calphoto Yahoo Group  has a wildflowers report for Saturday April 11, 2015 at Arroyo Seco down in Monterey County within the Santa Lucia Range.

yesterday hiked along the old closed gated dirt road up the canyon that is an excellent choice for those interested in wildflower close-ups because many species are easily captured from the road side since they are usually on inclined slopes.  Though these areas are limited for someone interested in landscapes much like other hikes in this region.  I was surprised how many more flowers had risen up in the interim.  Then someone related one of the park people said 1.5 inches of rain were in their gauge after last week’s storm!  It is looking nicely green on less exposed slopes.

The wiser strategy is to start hiking at sunrise when breezes are often absent before usual daytime breezes start later in the morning.  Note there are some mosquitoes about and quite a lot of black flies both of which are absent until later morning so dress appropriately and bring repellant.  Another reason to hike early.  There are always a lot of people hiking up the road and many by mid day have the intent of going down to the river which has a good flow and is rather cold.

The areas with densest flowers are below north facing slopes that tend to have shady coast live oak forest. Those areas also tend to have a lot of poison oak so that is another reason to just work road edges. Sunnier exposures tended to have different species and there is a long list of species out currently.  By far the most abundant species are Chinese houses with a great many just risen after the rain.  Saw 2 species of larkspur, 3 species of clarkias, and 3 species of paintbrush.  An abundance of dense blue fiesta flower in shady areas strangling PO and hummingbird sage.  Hiked all the way up to the Tassajara Creek trail wilderness boundary so about 7 miles round trip.

See more reports at Where to photograph in California – Yahoo Groups. (must register to use)