Natural History Wanderings

Today we drove up White Mt with many wildflower viewing and photography stops.   Here are my findings.

We  headed up to White Mt. on highway 168 from Big Pine.  We saw Whorled Milkweed, Yellow Spider Plant, Prince’s Plum, Inflated Buckwheat, Brittlebush, Red Penstemon, Lupines, a very tiny Buckwheat, Prickly Poppy, Blazing Star, Paint Brush, Pink Penstemon, and  Datura.

Turning up the road to the Bristlecones we added Sulfur Flower and another yellow Buckwheat, a couple of unidentified yellow composites, Cream Bush, orange Desert Mallow, Flax, Prickly Phlox, and showy Penstemon.  We also saw Mt. Bluebirds, Blue Grouse, a Hummingbird, a Hummingbird Hawk moth and a cottontail Rabbit.  We stopped at the Visitor’s Center at Schulman Grove, which is still a temporary trailer, until they rebuild the building, which burned down.  The visitor’s center confirmed that the road was open to Patriarch’s Grove and to the gate to the Barcroft Field Station.  The road is unpaved and accessible by car up to the Patriarch’s Grove.   They recommend four-wheel drive if you drive to the top, but it seemed that any vehicle with good clearance would not have a problem.  The road had lots of lupine and paintbrush along the way.  Also Mt. Wallflower, Erigeron, Single-stemmed Groundsel, unidentified yellow composites and Coyote Mint.

At the Patriarch Grove there are lots of Bristlecone pines.  There are also a lot of interesting very tiny flowers right around and in the center of the parking area including a Locoweed (astragalus), erigeron, a red buckwheat, a paintbrush and another yellow composite.

Driving up to the Barstow Gate we saw along the road, Brewer’s Cinquefoil, a trifolium clover, Whorled Penstemon, Showy Penstemon and Ivesia.  There were also several marmots.  At the very end of the road there were very few flowers.

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For more information on visiting White Mountain check my post:  Best of Two Worlds Eastern Sierra Nevada & White Mountain: hikes, drives & wildflowers