major wildflower bloom
Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:21 am
A heads up to those who enjoy our California spring wildflowers. The best wildflower bloom in the state as I write is not where enthusiasts would expect and by time current species blooming fades which will be soon, only a few like this photographer will have experienced it. And most of those will be equestrians because they frequent Pacheco State Park more than hikers.
I've been visiting the park during wet springs for a dozen years. It is not well known by the public in part because it is a new park created in 1997. Also its season of beauty is the short February thru mid April period while the rest of the year it is unpleasantly dry and brown like other inland Coastal Range parks. Also unlike its far better known Diablo Range cousins Mount Diablo State Park, Coe State Park, and various other county parks and open space areas, the park is a longer drive, even a full hour from San Jose. And oddly its early season flowers always bloom a few weeks before those in other SF Bay Area parks. The park easily has the most aesthetic blue oak savanna of any California public lands and parks with many trees of windswept form. Its 3 most common trees are blue oak, coastal live oak, and buckeye.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=560
Why does the park have an exceptional bloom now? Because an increasing seed bed built up over the past few droughty seasons. Then the area received much rain in December that started clocks of all the early blooming species. Then the two big warm storms of early February dropped a full 4 inches in the park's rain gauges according to a park worker I spoke with. I hiked the area 3 days after the storms and it was quite soggy with mushy trails and water seeping everywhere out of its grasslands. Without those storms given the dry warm January, there would have been a modest crop of stunted plants. Instead padres shooting stars and blue dicks have suddenly come out massively. Wildflowers in this park are never everywhere but rather patchy. Even in the wettest years there are considerable areas with just green grass. But that grass makes its landscapes magical in midday light glowing intensely green. And there are good numbers of California buttercup, miner's lettuce, and johnny-jump-ups. Also other scattered species as California poppies, purple sanicle, lomatium, mosquito bills, fiddleneck, gooseberry, and popcorn flower plus several others. Vast numbers of stunted filaree plants are yet to flower and it is still a month too early for goldfields.
The shooting stars form primarily in dense patches near the top of northern aspects of ridges. Areas of blue dicks dominate sunny south facing slopes and one will also see poppies there near sandstone outcrops. The best flower swaths are now about the junction of South Boundary Loop Trail, Canyon Loop East Trail, and Canyon Loop West Trail which is a good 3.5 miles out from the parking lot and photographic light is best between mid morning and early afternoon. Thus some wisdom to start hiking early morning right after the park opens at 8am. It is an exceptional park for those who enjoy leaving trails and hiking crosscountry and is rather safe an easy to do so. There are however barbed wire fences used to restrict its grazing cattle though can always be negotiated by crawling under at usable spots.
I've been visiting the park during wet springs for a dozen years. It is not well known by the public in part because it is a new park created in 1997. Also its season of beauty is the short February thru mid April period while the rest of the year it is unpleasantly dry and brown like other inland Coastal Range parks. Also unlike its far better known Diablo Range cousins Mount Diablo State Park, Coe State Park, and various other county parks and open space areas, the park is a longer drive, even a full hour from San Jose. And oddly its early season flowers always bloom a few weeks before those in other SF Bay Area parks. The park easily has the most aesthetic blue oak savanna of any California public lands and parks with many trees of windswept form. Its 3 most common trees are blue oak, coastal live oak, and buckeye.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=560
Why does the park have an exceptional bloom now? Because an increasing seed bed built up over the past few droughty seasons. Then the area received much rain in December that started clocks of all the early blooming species. Then the two big warm storms of early February dropped a full 4 inches in the park's rain gauges according to a park worker I spoke with. I hiked the area 3 days after the storms and it was quite soggy with mushy trails and water seeping everywhere out of its grasslands. Without those storms given the dry warm January, there would have been a modest crop of stunted plants. Instead padres shooting stars and blue dicks have suddenly come out massively. Wildflowers in this park are never everywhere but rather patchy. Even in the wettest years there are considerable areas with just green grass. But that grass makes its landscapes magical in midday light glowing intensely green. And there are good numbers of California buttercup, miner's lettuce, and johnny-jump-ups. Also other scattered species as California poppies, purple sanicle, lomatium, mosquito bills, fiddleneck, gooseberry, and popcorn flower plus several others. Vast numbers of stunted filaree plants are yet to flower and it is still a month too early for goldfields.
The shooting stars form primarily in dense patches near the top of northern aspects of ridges. Areas of blue dicks dominate sunny south facing slopes and one will also see poppies there near sandstone outcrops. The best flower swaths are now about the junction of South Boundary Loop Trail, Canyon Loop East Trail, and Canyon Loop West Trail which is a good 3.5 miles out from the parking lot and photographic light is best between mid morning and early afternoon. Thus some wisdom to start hiking early morning right after the park opens at 8am. It is an exceptional park for those who enjoy leaving trails and hiking crosscountry and is rather safe an easy to do so. There are however barbed wire fences used to restrict its grazing cattle though can always be negotiated by crawling under at usable spots.