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Available Reviews
Stunt Ranch Topanga Canyon State Park Malibu Creek SP Circle X Ranch Will Rogers SP Malibu Lagoon State Beach |
Date of Review
4/30. 4/24 & 4/20 & 4/18. 4/15 & 3/28. 3/31. 3/23. 8/2/17. |
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It appears the late rains have perked things up a bit. Some of the recent flower reports prove plants can be opportunists too.
I think everyone locally knows that the drought in the Santa Monicas is serious (currently ranked as D2: Severe Drought), but I still get emails from people asking about the flowers. They are usually folks from out of town about to visit the Land Of Eternal Sunshine who have also heard of the famous wildflower displays. Up to now I've been telling them it is another sad year for the flowers, but I am quick to add the beauty and grandeur of the trails in the Santa Monica Mountains stand on their own. Yes, the flowers were one of the reasons I always got out on the trails in the Spring, but they are certainly not the only reason to be hiking. And there never are no flowers in SoCal, although you have to know your way around for relatively few rewards when it is dry. Those of you who know can be of even greater service in a year like this. This site performs a public service that anyone can participate in. Let us all know what you are seeing! In general, if you are submitting a report I will usually get it much faster if you use the gmail account 'SMMWildFlowers' rather than my nps.gov account. 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. |
| Stunt Ranch/Cold Creek Preserve |
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4/30 |
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This is a trail that is off of Stunt Road. It is reached from Mulholland. Turn south onto Stunt Rd. and drive one mile to the dirt parking area on the right that is defined by telephone poles on the ground. There is no sign. The trail begins at the uphill end of the parking lot.
This is another trail that has wonderful wild flower displays. The trail immediately goes down alongside a creek where there are stream orchids. Also in this riparian area there are purple nightshade, canyon sunflower, greenback ceanothus, fiesta flower and most exciting, fairy lanterns or globe lilies. Just watch out for the poison oak which is abundant. The trail then goes uphill into some grasslands where there is an astonishing array of Catalina mariposa lilies, lupines, blue eyed grass, golden star lilies and blue larkspur. Continuing further you get into chaparral where there is blooming sugar bush, golden yarrow, black sage, Chinese houses, sticky monkey flower and woolly blue curls. This is a very satisfying hike. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Topanga Canyon State Park |
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4/24 |
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From the Trippet Ranch parking lot, walk up the paved road to the top of the hill and then turn right onto the signed trail. You can do this as an 'in and out' hike or make a loop by walking to the fire road (about two miles) and then turning right and walking the fire road back to the parking lot.
You should go walk this trail right now. It is amazing. The landscape mostly alternates between woodlands and grasslands with a little chaparral thrown in. The grasslands are what are amazing. There are literally thousands of Catalina mariposa lilies, I don't remember seeing this many all at once before. Mixed in with them are blue dicks, blue eyed grass, owl's clover, buttercups and some golden star lilies but the mariposas are the true stars. The hike has a good number of other spring wild flowers; purple nightshade, canyon sunflower, sticky monkey flower, hummingbird sage, golden yarrow and elderberry. Two less commonly seen flowers that are in bloom are the yellow rock rose and the gorgeous notable penstemon, not a lot of either, but both lovely. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Topanga Canyon State Park |
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4/20 |
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I access this canyon bottom trail from the end of Vereda De La Montura Street off of Palisades Drive in Pacific Palisades. You can also reach it by way of a long downhill hike from Trippet Ranch. But then you have to climb back up.
This is a hike that I think of when it gets hot but to my surprise there were a lot of flowers in April. The predominant flower was vetch which was all along the trail. There was also a fair amount of purple nightshade, fiesta flower, blue dicks, blackberry and wild cucumber. We saw a single blossoming milkmaid and one fuchsia flowering gooseberry bush and one bush lupine. The most exciting thing was that there were literally hundreds of Humboldt lily plants. They may not survive to bloom, deer love to browse them, but they hint that there could be an amazing display in about a month. When we arrived at the end of the canyon bottom trail I dashed uphill into the chaparral to see if there was anything happening up there. There is! There was chia, yellow pin cushion and owl's clover. There is probably more but I had companions who didn't want to climb hills. This is a wonderful hike in any season. Just be aware of poison oak which is plentiful. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Topanga Canyon State Park |
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4/18 |
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I am tremendously gratified to see a significant flower bloom.
You can reach the Dead Horse Trail from the Trippet Ranch parking lot. Follow the paved service road over the bridge and, on the other side turn left onto the marked trail. The trail winds downhill about 2 miles to the Dead Horse parking lot off Entrada Rd. I went as far as the lovely wooden bridge, I'd guess 1.5 miles. Just remember that the return will be all uphill.
The trail begins with woodland on one side and grassland on the other. The grasses are full of tiny but lovely dove lupine and also spotted with blue eyed grass, blue dicks, fiesta flower and buttercups. There is an alcove in the woods that is filled with hummingbird sage. Just before the trail enters the chaparral there is a patch of lovely Catalina mariposa lilies. In the chaparral there are places where the trail is edged with tiny skullcap flowers. Higher up there are black sage, sticky monkey flower, wild cucumber and Eastwood manzanita and woolly blue curls. The trail continues through patches of woodland and chaparral. It isn't the greatest display of wildflowers I have ever seen but it is certainly satisfying. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Malibu Creek State Park |
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4/15 |
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The chaparral and meadow wildflowers along the Phantom Trail, North Grassland Trail, and Liberty Canyon Fire Road are putting on a decent display. I observed blue dicks, fiddleneck, wild pea, lupine, paintbrush, phacelia, and California poppies. The valley oaks on the ridges are especially beautiful right now with new foliage. Malibu Creek is full of water. The park was crowded with visitors, especially at the Rock Pools, but few hikers ventured north of Mulholland.
— David Harris
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| Circle X Ranch |
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3/31 |
Despite the recent rains, seeking wildflowers on the Mishi Mokwa Trail was more of a treasure hunt than an immersive experience, but there was treasure worth hunting for. We began the loop at the Mishe Makwa trailhead and, initially, flower sighting were few and insignificant. There was a little bit of California buckwheat, California everlasting, wild cucumber, deerweed and woolly lomatium in the chaparral. On the long descent to Split Rock there were very few flowers to spot, just some greenbark ceanothus and one or two blue dicks. The area beyond Split Rock is where it began to get interesting. Two of the less common ceanothus varieties; hoary leaf ceanothus and white thorn were in very full bloom. They were interspersed with silk tassel bush and a beautiful chaparral currant. Then we began seeing padre's shooting stars, lots of them. This was a surprise because they usually bloom much earlier in the season. But there were many of them growing in large swathes and growing in places where I have not seen them in the past. We also began to see prickly phlox, another flower that usually blooms earlier in the year. We saw a little Eastwood manzanita and that completed our flower observations.
— Dorothy Steinicke
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| Malibu Creek SP |
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3/28 |
| Along crags road between Las Virgenes creek and Malibou Lake - a lot of wild cucumber along with ceanothus megacarpus. Some patches of poppies out west towards Malibou Lake. — TM | ||
| Will Rogers State Historic Park |
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3/23 |
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I wanted to let you know of some flowers I spotted on March 23, 2018 during a hike at Will Rogers State Historic Park. I was on the Inspiration Point Loop Trail and spotted California brittlebrush. This is a California State Park and it is also the eastern terminus of the Backbone Trail, which crosses the Santa Monica Mountains.
From the parking lot just beyond the park gate (bring money for parking), the trail heads up the mountain to the left of the tennis courts west of the ranch house and ranger office. I noticed a very small cluster of the California brittlebrush on an intersection of the trail. At this point, there is the fire road to the left and a narrower trail that leads up on the right. The trail itself was fairly muddy in some areas on this day (day after heavy rain), but it is otherwise easily accessible. — Ana Cholo 
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| Malibu Lagoon State Beach |
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8/2/2017 |
When it is just too hot to hike in the canyons it is good to remember that there are lots of interesting plants growing by the beach, at least some beaches. Malibu Lagoon was recently restored and has a lot of California native plants that you don't see in the hills and canyons. The California fuchsia is coming into bloom and was well attended by hummingbirds. There is alkali heath, bladder pod, wand buckwheat and wild heliotrope as well as other more familiar flowers. There are also a lot of interesting water birds to watch.
— Dorothy Steinicke
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Contact Information:
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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: Tony_Valois@nps.gov Or, for faster response use the gmail account SMMWildFlowers@gmail.com |
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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"
