California Wildflower Hikes

Paradise Serpentine Barrens

Charlie — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 05:06:58 +0000

OK, it sounds odd, “Paradise” and “Barrens” together? Well, “Paradise” in this case is the town of Paradise, near Chico, and the “Serpentine Barrens” is an interesting trail just past the town. There wasn’t a huge variety of flowers here, but it was still a wonderful wildflower hike. Serpentine is the “state rock” of California, [...]

Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve Wildflowers

Charlie — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 04:39:14 +0000

The Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve is an interesting site to visit in the Spring. Close to Lake Berryessa in the coastal range of Northern California, you have a couple of options. You can take the short hike up and back down the canyon for a relatively easy (and interesting!) hike, or you can go up [...]

Yosemite Flowers: White Wolf

Charlie — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 05:32:09 +0000

White Wolf is a campground and lodge in Yosemite National Park, just off of the Tioga Pass road. There is a meadow next to the lodge, and if you can time it right there is a wonderful display of wildflowers. This isn’t a “hike”, since you can park right next to the meadow, but if [...]

Mt Washburn, Yellowstone National Park

Charlie — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 16:00:31 +0000

We’ve been to Yellowstone National Park several times, but never to look for wildflowers. There are so many amazing natural wonders to see, with the geysers, wildlife and waterfalls, that most people don’t see the wonderful variety of flowers that are all around. THIS time we hiked up Mt. Washburn, and found a wider variety [...]

Ptarmigan Falls Trail, Glacier National Park

Charlie — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 04:37:32 +0000

This summer we went further afield in search of wildflowers than normal, looking in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. We found the BEST HIKE EVER, the Ptarmigan Falls / Iceberg Lake Trail in Glacier National Park. OK, so this isn’t a “California Wildflower Hike”, but we sure found a lot of wildflowers. Plus spectacular scenery. [...]

Grouse Ridge to Glacier Lake

Charlie — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 01:54:50 +0000

The Grouse Lakes area has a number of good hiking trails, although it isn’t the easiest area to get to. There is a good trailhead at the Grouse Ridge campground. This year we took the trail to Glacier Lake. You get a variety of environments, from exposed granite rock to newly formed meadows, so you [...]

Butterfly Valley Botanical Area

Charlie — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 04:56:58 +0000

I’ve wanted to visit the Butterfly Valley Botanical Area for a long time, so when we went orchid hunting recently near Quincy we made sure that we had enough time to visit this area. Instead of hunting orchids, we were hunting carnivorous plants! Butterfly Valley Botanical Area is about 500 acres of forest and meadows [...]

Orchids in Plumas County

Charlie — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 05:24:15 +0000

More orchids in Plumas County! On the same trip where we found orchids near Quincy, we visited a few spots on the way up the Feather River Canyon. We found flowers in several places, but the most exciting was on a side trip on Caribou Road. Two kinds of orchids, Reed Lilies, Tiger Lilies and more! [...]

Plumas County Wildflowers

Charlie — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 23:32:55 +0000

Orchids! What a wonderful find! Plumas County is a wonderful place for wildflowers, and this year we were very lucky to be able to find several species of orchids, some quite rare. We were very fortunate to make the aquaintence of Joe Willis, whose Black Oak Naturalist blog has long been one of my favorites. [...]

Traverse Creek Wildflowers

Charlie — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 05:30:32 +0000

The Traverse Creek Botanical Special Interest Area is a 220 acre reserve out in the country between Georgetown and Placerville in El Dorado County. It is a small valley with serpentine soils and a nice creek, with a number of trails. It isn’t highly developed, but you can find a number of interesting flowers.Serpentine soils have high levels of [...]