Natural History Wanderings

Where to photograph in California – Yahoo Groups (Calphoto) has  reports for the Mt. Diablo Waterfalls Loop and San Bruno Mt.

Yesterday I did the Waterfalls Loop at Mt. Diablo, leaving from Regency Drive. This was my first time on this loop, and I must say that the combination of creeks, waterfalls and wildflowers makes this a particularly nice Spring hike. For the most part, there aren’t big fields of flowers, instead, many intimate scenes with a wonderful diversity of species, too many to list (some I haven’t identified). Notably showy over larger areas are virgin’s bower and yerba santa. The rest are showy in small areas. I’ll admit that the beginning of the hike was less than inspiring (yet quite green), but once you get around to the main waterfalls loop, it gets very interesting. Note that this hike (like others at Diablo) is steep in parts, often narrow and encroached by poison oak.

Today, another personal first, San Bruno Mountain, Summit Loop trail, where it was interesting to see so many things growing tangled up in each other. Here, the two floral stars are a blue ceanothus, blooming like mad, and huge cow parsnip, which lines a large portion of this loop, is in full bloom and dots the mountain everywhere. Figwort also lines the trails and is in its prime, there’s a lovely pale yellow paintbrush, checkerbloom, gorgeous irises, hummingbird sage, and again many others, with San Francisco as the backdrop.