sbrobert
By Robert Bernstein
As noted in my previous article: With so much rain, everyone wants to know if a superbloom is in our future. The short answer: No one knows for sure. Rain can help grow flowers. But it can also grow tall invasive grass faster, which buries the flowers.
As promised in that article, my wife Merlie and I decided to head back out to Figueroa Mountain again to see what we could find. Once again, James Wapotich gave us helpful guidance. He suggested heading a short distance down the La Jolla Springs Trail, across the street (Figueroa Mountain Road) from Tunnell Road. Here are my many photos.
Grass Mountain was indeed quite lively with poppies, as we could already see as we approached the former Michael Jackson Neverland Ranch.
Unfortunately, all of the Midland School trails are now closed, including the Grass Mountain Trail. So, we continued on another 5-6 miles to the La Jolla Springs Trail. The upper part of the trail was a bit muddy, but it was easy to avoid the mud. Some parts of the trail were also washed out, but it was not too hard to get around those problems.
We soon saw some little flowers like these.
After about half a mile we came to a hill covered with lupines, with poppies higher up. Just as James Wapotich promised!
We continued on maybe another tenth or quarter of a mile to some more poppies and a nice view of Grass Mountain in the distance.
Merlie hung out in this area, while I continued all the way down to the springs at the bottom. It is about a 1,000 foot descent. Which means a 1,000 foot climb to get back up! Don’t do that unless you are prepared for that climb back up!
There were quite a few fallen trees and branches across the trail. Some were easy to get past, like this manzanita, but others required a bit more effort. Nothing too challenging.
I was soon treated to some lovely baby blue eyes flowers.
Further down were more poppies, lupines and even bush lupines.
I love this rock garden effect!
This moss is happy with all the rain.
Miner’s lettuce is a good snack. One of the few native plants that isn’t bitter!
A lone yucca in a Roadrunner landscape.
A beautifully unfurled fiddleneck.
The thousand foot descent ended at this convergence of little streams. Surprisingly loud for such small streams!
I think this is “Ballard Camp”? Maybe this is a camp stove?
Some fungus among us.
Manzanita fruits. Supposedly edible if necessary, but not very delicious.
A beautiful green meadow with a forever view beyond.
There be pines up here.
As we drove out, we made a couple of stops. This is a popular spot for picnics. Some years this is quite dry, with Turkish rugging growing all around. High rain years tend to give lots of grass.
But these little flowers were doing OK there.
Our second stop was at the overlook directly across from Grass Mountain. Some beautiful poppies there as well as on Grass Mountain.
There may be better places this year for wildflowers. The Carrizo Plain, the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve and Diamond Valley Lake in Hemet (near Palm Springs) are all rumored to be possibilities. The good news: A big rain year is not always the best year for super blooms. The years after can be even better!
