Natural History Wanderings

MajReport and photo by Kirby Flanagan

I visited Bear Valley which I did on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday morning.  This was a 4 hour drive for my wife and I as we live near Carson City.  Fortunately, it proved to be worthwhile.  The greatest concentration of poppies was just past the junction of Hwy’s 20 and 16 in the fields on the Southside of Hwy 20.  I would estimate that there is a total of 1.5-2.0 acres of poppies in several large groups in these fields.  The number of poppies actually seemed to increase in numbers throughout the 3 days I observed them.  I’m sending a smart phone photo that I took yesterday of the largest field separately.  Fortunately, there is a smaller, but significant size plot of poppies outside the fences that can be readily photographed.  You have to get there just at sunrise as the wind comes up shortly after making photography a challenge.  There was also a small patch of Tidy Tips in amongst the poppies outside the fence.

Bear Valley Poppy Fields by Kirby Flanagan

I drove Bear Valley Road three times while there and again noted an increase in the number of wildflowers each time.  There are small clumps of poppies in many spots along the road, but the only major concentration was on the Wildflower Ranch in the fields and again along the roadside.  There are indeed large areas of lupine on the hillsides of Bear Valley Road along with small clusters of a couple of other flowers which I couldn’t identify.  I’m a beginning botanist and even more so for Sierra wildflowers as we just moved to the area in Sept. 2013.

I also drove down Hwy 16 through Cache Creek Canyon which was interesting but did not contain a lot of wildflowers.  Finally, drove Walker Ridge Rd.  Saw some clusters of Indian Paintbrush, but not much else.

I will process the rest of my photos over the next couple of days and put them on my website at www.flanaganfotos.com if you’re interested.

Click read more to see more reports for Bear Valley

A posting at Calphoto adds:

Just returned from 2 days in Bear Valley. Drove north from Hwy 20 to
Stonyford area, and on day 2 drove south via Walker Ridge. Certainly some
“carpets” at the southern extent of Bear Valley, but much less so further
north in the Valley. Lupens may not be at peak yet, but hard to tell.
Walker Ridge is very dry and we saw very few flowers. Indian Reservoir was
low, with many trees visible where there should be water. Road was OK, but
pretty rough in spots and probably not worth the wear and tear on your
vehicle.

Related articles

• Bear Valley & Walker Ridge Wildflower Report 4/11/14 (naturalhistorywanderings.com)
• Bear Valley Wildflowers Are Looking Good 4/26/14 (naturalhistorywanderings.com)