Today was spent exploring wildflowers along Bishop Creek in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. We drove from 395 to South Lake (approx. 22 miles). The Wildflowers don’t start to appear until about 11 miles and the best flowers along the road were during the last few miles.
The highlight was a very short hike we did through a wildflower “garden”, which was a short spur to left of the main trail just above the parking area. This was probably the most flowery area we have seen during this trip. There were lots of Kelley’s Lily, Monkshood, Red Paintbrush, Western Columbine, Sierra Rein-Orchid, and Arrow-leafed Groundsel. Other flowers in this area included Green Rein Orchid, Fireweed, Slender Cinquefoil, Shooting Star, Sierra Columbine and Swamp Onion.
Click Read more to see detailed plant list
Bishop Creek Plant List 7/17/17:
Heavenly Blue or Blue Mantle/ Eriastrum densifolium
Desert Sweet/Chamaebatiaria millefolium
Rabbitbrush/Chrysothamnus nauseous
Frosted or Sulphur Buckwheat/Eriogonum umbellatum
Blue Elderberry/Sambucus mexicana
Soda Straw/Angelica lineariloba
Desert Evening Primrose/Oenothera caespitosa
Long-leaved Paintbrush/Castilleja linarifolia
Inyo Lupine/Lupinus argenteus var. heteranthus
Seen in the two miles before South Lake
Apricot Mallow/Sphaeralcea ambigua
Bird’s-foot Trefoil/Lotus corniculatus (naturalized)
Kelley’s Lily/Lillium kelleyanum
Sierra Rein-orchid/Platanthera leucostachys
Arrow-leaf Groundsel/Senecio triangularis
Ranger’s Buttons/Sphenosciadum capitellum
Slender Cinquefoil/Potentilla gracilis
Fireweed/Chamerion angustifolium
Rosy Everlasting/Antennaria corymbosa
Monkshood/Aconitum columbianum
Spreading Dogbane/Apocynum androsaemfolium
Bridge’s Penstemon/Penstemon rostriflorus
Naked Buckwheat/Eriogonum nudum
Sticky Cinquefoil/Drymocallis glandulosa
Creek Monkeyflower/Mimulus tilingii
Labrador Tea/Rhododendron columbianum
Green Rein-Orchid or Green Canyon Orchid/Planthera sparsiflora
Single-Stemmed Butterweed/Senecio integettimus
Swamp Onion/Allium validum
Mt. Pennyroyal/Monardella odoratissima
Brook Saxifrage/Saxifraga odontoloma
Creek Dogwood/Cornus sericea
Ivesia sp.
Whorled Penstemon/ Penstemon heterodoxa
Western Columbine/ Aquilegia formosa
Sierra Columbine/ Aquilegia pubescens
Also a Hybrid Columbine of above species
Shooting Star/ Primula sp.
Meadow Rue/ Thalictrum sp.
Natural History Wanderings 
Thanks for the report Sandy – as usual, I can”t wait to follow in your footprints! Maybe next week — how’s the air quality with the big fire near the Mariposa, Hwy 140, Hwy 132, and Hwy 49 areas?
Is Ebbett’s Pass open? CalTrans doesn’t say it is, though they don’t say it isn’t.
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By: Kathleen Dowdakin, Milo Baker Chapter, CNPS on July 18, 2017
at 11:31 PM
I believe it is open here are two links that can help:
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/clsdlst.htm
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/display.php?page=sr4
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By: Sandy Steinman on July 19, 2017
at 4:23 PM