Natural History Wanderings

 Daniel submitted the following report for Figueroa Mountain:

4/16/16 Many wildflowers in about the same 4 areas as in prior years. As you go up Figueroa Mountain Rd you will see some nice spots of Mariposa lilies, these white flowers with violet colored edges in the grassland before entering the recreational area. After you pass the Figueroa station and a few hundred yards before the Pino Alto and Cachuma Saddle road split is the first and easiest place to get to a large field of flowers. On one side of the slope are poppies and on the other side are these purple bush lupines. The next 3 locations require you to turn left and go up a narrow dirt road toward Pino Alto, Lookout, & Cumbre. Driving slowly, my passenger car was able to go up there without major trouble.

The second main area of flowers is at about the halfway point of going up this dirt road to the Cumbre picnic area. At about 1 ½ miles I parked on a large pullout before the road curves left, and then I walked back a few hundred feet to a large batch of flowers going down slope on the right side of the road.

After passing the Pino Alto picnic area, the third main area of flowers is at & slightly before the road split for Cumbre and The Lookout. There is a thick concentration of both poppies and lupines together on a long hill going up the slope on the right. There is also a smaller batch of flowers on the other side of the road on the downward slope. At the intersection you can go right to the Lookout to view the surrounding mountain areas but there are not as many flowers there; but there did seem to be a lot of flying bugs.

The fourth main area of wildflowers is turning left at the intersection going to the Cumbre picnic area and from a few hundred yards in to around the halfway point are batches of poppies and lupines together. As you get closer to the picnic area there is a large area of purple bush lupines among the trees in a forest like setting. From here you are close to the top so I turned around and went back down the mountain.

I did see quite a few cars parked in one location where I assume people were hiking to Grass Mountain. I spoke to someone in the area and she said that it takes about 2 hours each way to hike to where the flowers are but that the display was not as nice now since it is about 1 week past the bloom peak.