Natural History Wanderings

Updated 2/23/11

Pete Devine has a wildflower update for the area along highway 140  in his latest Yosemite Notes posting: Yosemite Nature Notes Blog: Same price, now with extra waterfalls.  He reports:

“The 140 corridor between El Portal and Briceburg has been dynamic in the past few days: lots of cascades pouring down to the highway, a couple of landslips, and still more flowers. It’s not too early to go enjoy the Hite’s Cove trail for living color. The highway is lined with sparse fiddlenecks in sunny spots. On sunny slopes across the river, patches of poppies and false goldfields are evident. Right now the waterfall buttercups are at their peak above the road, immediately downstream of Ned’s Gulch – a lush display is found on the drippy metamorphic substrate.”

On February 17 the Yosemite Park site wrote about early flowers appearing on the Hite Cove trail along the Merced River at:   http://www.nps.gov/yose/naturescience/bloom.htm