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Page Revised: 12/22/04 |
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Available Sites Rancho Sierra Vista |
Date of Review 12/20/04 & 11/11/04 |
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See the photo gallery of
What’s Blooming at: http://www.nps.gov/samo/bloom/bloom.htm |
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The early rains this year
has gotten the new blooming season off to an early start. The trails have
greened up nicely and we are beginning to see a significant number of flowers
of the new blooming season. |
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Rancho Sierra Vista |
Satwiwa Loop Trail |
Date: 12/20/04 |
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Only 12 species are blooming (so far)
on this 1.5 mile easy trail, but more then half of the trail is covered with blooms
of big pod ceanothus and wild cucumber. Other notable flowers were shooting
stars (earliest we have ever seen them), mulefat,
deerweed and everlasting. Greenbark ceanothus is covered with buds and the
buds on the California peony should be open within the week if this warm
weather continues. (SB) |
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Naturalist's rating: Good |
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Solstice Canyon |
Solstice Canyon Trail |
Date: 12/12/04 |
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Along the easy trail to Tropical Terrace,
beautiful fall colors are everywhere. The most amazing thing, however, is the
number of spring flowers already blooming. Standouts among the 20 species
seen were milkmaids, wild cucumber, both purple and white nightshades, black
sage, beggar ticks, bay trees and slopes covered with big pod ceanothus. Be
sure to smell the flowers on the bay trees which smell like mild gardenias
and so different from the spicy smell of the bay leaves. The alders have
already produced both catkins and cones. Fall holdovers (mostly bristly
seeds, but some flowers) included brickle bush,
cliff asters, California fuchsia, coyote brush, bush mallow and ashy-leaf
buckwheat. This is definitely a promising beginning to our flower season.
(SB) |
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Naturalist's rating: Good |
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Circle X Ranch / Point Mugu State Park |
Backbone Trail |
Date: 12/11/04 |
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This hike was the second of the
2004-2005 NPS Backbone Trail Series. We will be hiking the entire Backbone Trail,
one part each month and reporting on the flowers seen. This hike was from the
Sandstone Peak Trailhead in Circle X Ranch to Danielson Ranch, a distance of
9 miles. This included the Sandstone Peak Trail, Chamberlain Trail, Old Boney
Road and Blue Canyon Trail. The weather was unseasonably warm, cloudless, and
visibility unlimited. It is still early in the growing
season and with our hike starting at an altitude of 2,100 feet we were
effectively yet earlier in the season compared to lower elevations. Even here
the Big Pod Ceanothus is blooming profusely. We could see a variation of
color from white to pale lavender or blue among the different plants. The
Bush Senecio that have been blooming the along the ascent to Sandstone Peak
the last few months still had a few blossoms for us. The scarcity of flowers
leads us to be delighted in seeing even Black Mustard and Common Groundsel.
There were quite a few Chaparral Current in the early stages of blooming.
Eastwood Manzanita is dominant along the trail but the only Manzanita blooms
seen were on the Bigberry Manzanitas. As we
descended below Chamberlain Rock we saw the tiny white flowers of Rattlesnake
Weed (Spurge) on decomposing shale hillsides. Some California Fuchsia and
Mule Fat are still to be seen in low places in Blue Canyon. (BE and TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Circle X Ranch |
Grotto Trail |
Date: 12/10/04 |
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Very few flowers on this two mile round
trip to the Grotto and back. New in the last week or so we see quite a few
Big-pod Ceanothus beginning to bloom nicely. Otherwise, the only plants in
bloom on this trail in any quantity are California Fuchsia and California
Sagebrush. Isolated stragglers left from last year's blooming season include
Woolly Aster, Wand Buckwheat, California Buckwheat, Felt-leaf Everlasting,
and Cliff Aster. Telegraph Weed deserves its own note as it has been quite
exuberant in it's blooming over the last few weeks, however, it is only
visible at the very top of this trail. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Circle X Ranch |
Mishe Mokwa to
Sandstone Peak loop |
Date: 12/06/04 |
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Very few flowers blooming on this six-mile
loop that includes a stop at Sandstone Peak. A half inch of rain yesterday
has made the trail quite muddy in a few places although for the most part
this trail is well drained. Almost nothing is left from last year's blooming
season. We found one faded Wooly Aster in bloom, a single example of Bush
Senecio, some mostly finished California Sagebrush and Coyote Brush, and a
sparse scattering of California Buckwheat. The only flower present from the
new blooming season in any quantity was the delightful Chaparral Current.
Early examples of both Bigberry Manzanita and Bigpod Ceanothus can also be
found. There were several other plants showing buds but the recent cool
weather will no doubt slow down their opening. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Circle X Ranch |
Backbone Trail below Triunfo Peak |
Date: 12/02/04 |
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This relatively new section of the
backbone starts in the South parking lot of the Mishe Mokwa trailhead and proceeds
four miles South-East of Yerba Buena before intersecting Yerba Buena again. A
good portion of this trail is spent looping around Triunfo Peak. The trail
provides grand views of the ocean and the day we did the hike we could see
both San Nicolas and San Clemente as well as the much closer Santa Catalina
and the Islands of Channel Islands National Park. Evidence of deer is
plentiful including many tracks and plants growing in unusual shapes and
sizes because of the heavy browsing. This hike included a side trip to
Triunfo Peak. |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Point Mugu State Park |
Backbone Trail |
Date: 11/13/04 |
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This hike was the first of the
2004-2005 NPS Backbone Trail Series. We will be hiking the entire Backbone
Trail, one part each month and reporting on the flowers seen. The hike was from
the western Backbone Trailhead in La Jolla Canyon to Danielson Ranch, a
distance of just over 8 miles. (Ray
Miller Trail, Overlook Fire Road, Wood Canyon Vista Trail, Sycamore Canyon
Fire Road) Hiking from La Jolla Canyon to
Danielson Ranch during the best wildflower season we would expect to record
about 40 species. This day we noted 16 species with several having only a few
flowers. Tree Tobacco, Telegraph Weed, and the Mustards are almost always to
be seen. Woolly Aster, Cliff Aster, California Fuchsia, Coyote Brush,
Chicory, Wand and Ashy leaf Buckwheat, and Mule Fat are nearing the end of
their blooming cycle. Early blooming Rattlesnake Weed, Bladder Pod, Chaparral
Current, Greenbark Ceanothus, and Deerweed were seen. By the time this report
is published many more species will be blooming. We saw many new buds, but
restricted ourselves to only report plants in flower. (BE and RMW) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Rancho Sierra Vista / Point Mugu State Park |
Wendy Trail / Boney Mountain Trail |
Date Observed: 11/11/04 |
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On 11/11/04 we hiked the Wendy Trail
to the Satwiwa Trail to the Upper Sycamore Canyon Trail to the waterfall and then
the Boney Mountain Trail to the Danielson Monument. This was a 6 mile hike
during which only 15 species of flora were found to be in bloom. This was a
decidedly a poor showing, but the first blooms of the new season were
encountered, the lovely pink and white of the chaparral current. The views
down into upper Sycamore Canyon with the sycamore trees still yellow against
the darker green of the other trees and chaparral were spectacular. The
waterfall at the head of the canyon was flowing with a steady stream of water
and the creek babbled incessantly. Yellow was the leader in number of species
blooming with sow thistle, hedge mustard, sweet fennel, telegraph weed and
lots of Calif. sagebrush. White was represented only by coyote bush, cliff
aster and ashy-leaved buckwheat. Wooly aster and vervain contributed lavender
to color scheme. Pink/red were represented by wild roses, wand buckwheat,
chaparral current and lots of hoary fuchsia. Also seen was Russian thistle
blooming. (RMW) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Rancho Sierra Vista |
Native
Plant Garden |
Date Observed: 10/11/2004 |
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Reliable water brings out continual
bloom here. You'll see both spring (fuchsia flowered gooseberry, verbain, California
wild rose, sticky monkey flower, purple sage, bladderpod, yerba mansa) and
summer blooms (California fuchsia, conejo buckwheat, wand buckwheat) as well
as dried berries (rose hips) and pods (yerba mansa, narrow-leaved milkweed) (SB) |
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Contact
Information: Santa
Monica Mountains National Recreation Area 401 West
Hillcrest Drive Ph.
805-370-2301 web. www.nps.gov/samo |
Thank
you for your
contributions: Robert W.
Maughmer |
If you
would like to contribute to the wildflower report: e-mail: or phone
him at 310-457-6408 |
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