Natural History Wanderings

Bay Nature reports

The Mount Umunhum summit area will open to the public on September 16.To stand on top of Mount
Umunhum is to step back in time. Up here at 3,486 feet, spring blossoms and buzzes and a cool wind blows, while down below you can almost watch San Jose roasting under the July sun. At these heights winter is harsher and longer, causing spring on the mountain to begin a month or more later than in the Santa Clara Valley below. Colorful blooms lure butterflies and hummingbirds to the summit, where they seem to congregate, a phenomenon so long a part of the mountain’s existence the region’s Ohlone Indians called it “the resting place of the hummingbird,” or umunhum.

Read full article at A Mountaintop with Panoramic Bay Area Views, Closed to the Public for 59 Years, Opens This Fall – Bay Nature