Natural History Wanderings

submitted by Terry Sullivan

We hiked Stebbins Cold Canyon up the long switchbacks to the ridgetop, south along the vertical sandstone sawtooth ridge, continuing the Annie’s Rock Loop, and heading back down via the Old Homestead (8 miles, 3000 ft.). Attractive displays of Eriophyllum lanatum var. achillaeoides, Castilleja foliolosa, Castilleja applegatei ssp. martinii, Castillleja exerta, Collinsia heterophylla, Asclepias cordifolia,Wyethia helenioides, Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia, Erysimum capitatum, Calystegia occidentalis, Clematis lasiantha, Delphinium patens, Dichelostemma volubile, Calochortus amabilis, plus many others to hold your interest. The trails have not been trimmed this season, so lots of poison oak, as well as other shrubs, overhand the trail in places. Annie’s Rock Loop is especially overgrown and requires continual pushing aside of tangles of branches.