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Available Reviews
Santa Ynez Canyon Nicholas Flat Topanga State Park Point Mugu State Park Zuma Canyon |
Date of Review
05/05 & 03/24. 04/24. 04/20 & 04/05 & 03/17 & 02/01. 03/24 03/04. 02/16. |
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| Santa Ynez Canyon |
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05/05 |
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Enter from Pacific Palisades at the end of Vereda de la Montura Street. You begin a walk though dense oaks and sycamores. There are now many more flowers in bloom in this shady area than there were a month ago. There are caterpillar phacelia, eucrypta, canyon sunflower, bush lupine, elegant clarkia, wild rose, and heartleaf penstemon.
When the trail splint, left to Trippet, right to the waterfall, I went toward the waterfall. As the sign warns you, this trail is not maintained and it does involve some scrambling, more than before last year’s fire. But your efforts are rewarded with some lovely displays of flowers. Large flower phacelia is everywhere. There are also impressive displays of Indian pinks, creek monkey flower, farewell-to-spring, angel’s gilia, whispering bells and purple nightshade. The trail ends at the waterfall. There is currently a bit of water falling, you can see more if you climb up the first boulder. This trail is a place where I always see a lot of butterflies and this day did not disappoint. There were California sisters, mourning cloaks, sulfurs, and cabbage whites. There is a lot of poison oak in the canyon and it is difficult to avoid. I would recommend long pants and long sleeves. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Nicholas Flat |
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04/24 |
On 4/24/22, I visited Nicholas Flat entering the trailhead from Decker School Rd. There are no signs at the trailhead or marking the trails as a result of the Woolsey Fire. Going counterclockwise, I had great views of Boney Mountain, Arroyo Sequit, Channel Islands and Catalina along the Ridgeline Trail. Great variety of flowers on the hillsides with significant numbers of golden yarrow, sticky monkey flower, deerweed, morning glory, purple nightshade, caterpillar phacelia, black sage, yucca, canyon sunflower, fringed pink, blue larkspur, Catalina mariposa lily, canyon pea, bush lupine, bush mallow, hummingbird sage, indian paintbrush, Parry's phacelia, heart-shaped penstemon, cliff aster, purple sage, pincushion, California everlasting, mustard evening primrose, filaree, thistles, and scarlet pimpernel. There were a few purple clarkia, sticky phacelia, purple owl's clover, whispering bells, common vervain, and tidy tips. On the flat was a large stand of scarlet bugler. The pond was very full from the recent rains and there were a lot of tadpoles on the banks. From a safe distance, there was nice size rattler crossing the trail on the loop back to the car
— Kathy Jonokuchi
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| Topanga State Park |
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04/20 |
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The Dead Horse Trail connects the Dead Horse Parking lot that is just after the turn onto Entrada Road from Topanga Canyon Blvd. with the Trippet Ranch area. It is about a mile and a half long and almost entirely downhill from the Trippet area. I started at Trippet and went down and then up.
From the Trippet parking lot walk out on the narrow paved road/trail. Make sure to stop and admire the pond, currently full of water. There are many wild roses blooming by the edge. There are tadpoles in the pond and often mallards on it. Just after the bridge turn left onto the Dead Horse Trail. You will have oak woodland on the left and grassland on the right. At the edge of the woods you will find hummingbird sage and fiesta flower in bloom. About a quarter mile along, just as the habitat transitions into chaparral, you will find a veritable garden of geophytes; mariposa lilies, goldenstar lilies, blue eyed grass and blue dicks along with some cinquefoil. Once you are in the chaparral the chamise reigns, it is in bloom everywhere, making the hillsides white. There is also deer weed, black sage, popcorn flower, woolly blue curls, heart leaf penstemon and many, many other flowers. The trail will alternate chaparral with oak woodland where there is canyon sunflower and purple nightshade in bloom. I saw baby blue eyes, a lovely little flower that I don’t encounter very often. All together I counted 33 native species in bloom on the walk downhill, then another 7 when I came back up the very same trail. This is a trail in full bloom and well worth a visit. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Topanga State Park |
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04/05 |
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The Nature Loop Trail is a fairly short loop trail that leaves from the Trippet Ranch parking lot, climbs to the fire road, crosses and passes through an area of chaparral before returning to the fire road and, by it, back to the parking lot.
Climbing the hill from the parking lot, you are under tall coast live oaks in an area that did not burn. Below the trees are blooming canyon sunflower, hummingbird sage, purple nightshade, elderberry and eucrypta. When you cross the road you enter the area that did burn last May and it is a very different environment. Even before the fire it was a different environment, a chaparral area but now it is stunning. There are still patches of blackened earth and still skeletal black branches rising out of regrowing shrubs, but you would not immediately spot this as an area as one that was thoroughly burned less than a year ago. It is a riot of flowers with bush sunflowers, caterpillar phacelia and wild morning glory bursting out everywhere. The air is scented with the sweet smell of bush lupine and there are also foothill lupine and stinging lupine. There is sticky monkey flower, whispering bells, popcorn phacelia and fire followers large flower phacelia and sticky phacelia. It does the heart good to see this landscape recovering from last May’s big fire. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Santa Ynez Canyon |
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03/24 |
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This is a good time to visit. The canyon floor is green and lush and it is gratifying to see how it is recovering from last year’s fire. The chaparral portion is magnificent.
Entering from Pacific Palisades at the end of Vereda de la Montura. You begin with a walk through oaks and sycamores admiring the canyon sunflower, purple nightshade and fiesta flower. I skipped the waterfall trail and went left on the trail that goes to Trippet Ranch. Starting up the hill into the chaparral area the flowers are really glorious. There are yellow pincushion, owl’s clover, white snapdragon, twining snapdragon, big flower phacelia, blue dicks, chia and lots of morning glories and bush sunflower. This goes all the way to Trippet if you want to go that far. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Topanga State Park |
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03/17 |
On 3/17/22, I visited Topanga State Park taking the same trails as Dorothy did on 2/1. Started at Trippet Ranch on the Eagle Springs Fire Road to Eagle Rock. On the northern facing slopes, lupine was abundant but on the burn area, not much was growing. The trail going to Eagle Rock and down into Musch Trail, there were beautiful displays of stinging lupines and yellow collarless poppies. Past that, were windmill pink, fuschia flowered gooseberry, showy penstemon, tree poppy and white snapdragon. Towards the end of the Musch Trail, were abundant blue dicks, Catalina mariposa lilies and blue-eyed grass.
— Kathy Jonokuchi
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| Point Mugu State Park and Preserve |
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03/04 |
I visited the park twice this week to see the giant coreopsis in full bloom. I parked before the paid parking on Westward Beach. Walking along the road are sea rocket, wishbone bush, sand verbena and bush sunflower. Both times I saw the gray whales feeding off the point, along with the sea lions hauled out and dolphin surfing.
— Kathy Jonokuchi
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| Zuma Canyon |
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02/16 |
The canyon is wonderfully green. I was there on a cool but sunny day and there were lots of butterflies in evidence; sara orange tips and other little blues, whites and yellows. I hiked in and up onto the northern shoulder of the canyon and then back down to the valley floor and along streambed. There are lots of purple nightshade, wild cucumber, wild morning glory, Indian paintbrush, locoweed and various sunflowers in bloom. To me the most exciting moment was when I discovered the chocolate lilies growing on the north shoulder of the canyon just before it heads downhill toward the valley floor. First I saw one and then realized that there were many that have popped up low to the ground. There are other geophytes in that area, blue dicks and blue eyed grass. Down by the creek, which is dry fairly deep into the canyon, I was surprised to find scarlet buglers blooming alongside the trail with many more in bud. The greenbark ceanothus are in bloom everywhere.
— Dorothy Steinicke
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| Topanga State Park |
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02/01/2022 |
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The huge rainfall that we received at the end of December has transformed Topanga and all of our mountains. Places that had been brown and parched are now vividly green. Even the areas that burned in last spring’s Palisades Fire are looking better.
This was a loop hike starting at Trippet Ranch, taking the Fire Road to the junction of Eagle Rock, Eagle Springs and the Musch Trail and returning on The Musch Trail, about 5 miles. Walking the Fire Road toward Eagle Rock you see the area that burned on your right and the unburned area on your left. Things are starting to bloom. Some things are blooming in both the burned and unburned areas. Wild cucumber is the most prevalent. The climbing vine is climbing other plants on the unburned side and is sprawled across the bare ground on the side that burned. Purple nightshade and blue dicks also seem to be doing well on both sides. The burned areas have succulent lupine popping up in clusters The unburned side is additionally hosting chaparral currant, popcorn flower, prickly phlox, eucrypta and lots of beautiful big pod ceanothus, really the star of the hike. Returning on the mostly unburned Musch Trail big pod ceanothus continues to reign supreme but there are also examples of blooming hollyleaf cherry, tree poppy, fuchsia flowering gooseberry and most surprisingly, one lovely stand of showy penstemon. If we get a significantly wet winter we may have a spectacular show of spring wildflowers in the burned areas. — 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: 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"
