|
Available Reviews
Topanga State Park Trippet Ranch Malibu Creek State Park Zuma Canyon |
Date of Review
03/02 & 02/14 & 01/08. 03/02. 01/06. 01/01. |
|
| ||
|
This site performs a public service that anyone can participate in. Let us all know what you are seeing! If you are new to submitting a report (or maybe even an old hand at it) be sure and read How To Submit a Flower Report — ed. |
| Topanga State Park |
|
03/02/2023 |
|
I revisited the Nature Trail to see how it came through the heavy rains. Some of the great masses of succulent lupines were a bit battered by the rain but they are still impressive. The flowers have changed a bit, there is more popcorn flower and less wild cucumber. The caterpillar phacelia have joined the mob of flowers. This is still the best trail for impressive wildflower viewing.
Return down the fire road to the parking lot. There are a couple of lovely blooming fuchsia flowering gooseberry bushes. — Dorothy Steinicke 
|
||
| Trippet Ranch |
|
03/02/2023 |
|
I was eager to see what the mountains look like after all the recent rain. I headed up the Musch Trail from the Trippet Ranch parking lot. After all the rain the Musch Trail should be called the Mushy Trail. There was quite a lot of mud as well as creeks running across the trail and, often, down the middle of the trail. Before I had gotten even a mile I came to a spot where the trail had been completely washed out and it would have taken a far more adventurous hiker than I to cross it. I turned back.
Still, it is wonderful to see everything so greened up. There is great promise for spring wild flowers. On the portion of the trail I walked I saw purple nightshade and wild cucumber, both fairly beaten down by the rains. There was some California buttercup, little skullcap flowers, eucrypta and popcorn flowers. Good things are coming to this trail but most are not here yet. — Dorothy Steinicke 
|
||
| Topanga State Park |
|
02/14/2023 |
|
The Nature Loop Trail is a fairly short loop trail that leaves the Trippet Ranch parking lot, goes by the Visitor’s Center, climbs a wooded trail to the fire road, cross the road to go through more woods, out into a spectacular area of blooming chaparral and then returns to the parking lot via the fire road.
It is only mid-February but spring flowers are already in full bloom in the Topanga chaparral, particularly in areas that burn in the May, 2021 fire. We followed the Nature Loop which winds up the hill through oaks occasional patches of purple nightshade, wild cucumber, red maids and miner’s lettuce. The trail crosses the fire road and winds to the left through some more trees and the first representatives of the beautiful blue succulent lupines in bloom. Once you can see the canyon opening to your right, keep in mind that all of this burned to blackened soil less than two years ago. Now it is lush and flowering. The trail continues into and open chaparral area and runs along the lip of a steep slope. Here the flowers are fabulous. Among the many blue lupines and white wild cucumber there are sticky phacelia, white nightshade, popcorn flowers and poppies, both the orange and the yellow. In the traverse across there are also bush sunflower, coastal lotus, greenbark ceanothus, blue dicks and wishbone flowers. On the last arm of this triangle an entire hillside is covered with the red/purple flowers of stinging lupine. It is breathtaking. Return down the fire road to the parking lot. There are a couple of lovely blooming fuchsia flowering gooseberry bushes. — Dorothy Steinicke 
|
||
| Topanga State Park |
|
01/08/2023 |
|
I was very curious to know the state of the canyon after three inches of rain in the past week.
This canyon has been dramatically impacted in the past couple years, first by the Palisades Fire in May on 2021 and then by the heavy rains in December 2021 and January 2022 which caused the soil on the slopes, that after the fire no longer had plants holding it in place, to wash into and fill the creek. This resulted in the creek appearing to be a graded dirt roadway that most hikers used as a trail. After last week’s big rains the creek no longer looks like a roadway. It looks like a wide and rushing creek. Some of the trail also looks like a creek. There is a good deal of mud. It is an exciting hike, but know that your shoes will get muddy. On the canyon floor there was not much in bloom. I only saw blooming bay trees. However I took the trail toward Trippet Ranch and climbing up into the chaparral I encountered a suite of white flowers. The most notable is the big pod ceanothus whose honey-like smell permeates the area. There are also wild cucumber vines in flower, twiggy wreath plant, California everlasting and wild morning glory. Most exciting to me was the view of the mountainside across the canyon. It burned and for the past year and a half has been blackened and bare, now it is vibrantly green. — Dorothy Steinicke 
|
||
| Malibu Creek State Park |
|
01/06/2023 |
|
We wanted to take advantage of a break in the rain and get outside and hike, hopefully without getting too muddy. Malibu Creek State Park seemed to be a good choice. It is a place where you can have a real hike on what is essentially a graded dirt road.
We hiked from the lower parking lot on Crags Road to where took the bridge over Malibu Creek and turned left onto Mott Road. We took that to where the state park ends and then turned back and retraced our steps. We got there early on a foggy weekday morning and had the feeling that we had the enormous place to ourselves. To my disappointment, it seemed that we were too early for flowers. There was a cudweed aster flower here and a goldenbush flower there. The only plants in full bloom were the California bay trees. However there were a plethora of birds. As we walked along the road we saw juncos, towhees, white crowned sparrows, scrub jays, and flycatchers. A flock of California quail flew up from the creek. In the creek, which was more like a raging river, there were great blue herons, egrets, mallards and coots. All the trees seemed to be filled with acorn woodpeckers. Too soon for many flowers but still a nice walk. — Dorothy Steinicke |
||
| Zuma Canyon |
|
01/01/2023 |
I celebrated the start of 2023 and the rainfall that has come with it by hiking in Zuma Canyon. The hillsides are still more gray than green but the creek was flowing and the flowers are starting to bloom. We walked along the flat canyon bottom, trying to avoid mud and fording the stream when necessary. After three crossings it looked too deep to try and we returned on the Zuma Loop Trail that traverses the northern shoulder of the canyon. It was exciting to see the big pod ceanothus starting, clumps of it were frequently encountered. There was also a good bit of chaparral currant and wild cucumber getting started. There was a lot of scalebroom growing alongside the creek. We also saw white and purple nightshade, deerweed, wild morning glory, bush mallow, cudweed aster and mulefat. A very good start of the new year.
— Dorothy Steinicke
|
||
Contact Information:
|
Santa Monica Mountains NRA 401 West Hillcrest Drive Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 805-370-2301 www.nps.gov/samo |
If you would like to contribute a wildflower report you can e-mail the editor at: SMMWildFlowers@gmail.com |
|
What's Blooming
on the web at
www.smmflowers.org/whatsblooming
or go to
www.nps.gov/samo
click on
"Plan Your Visit" > "Things to Do" > "Look for Wildflowers"
