It was a hot summer day at our house and we were trying to think of ways to escape the heat. We decided to head up the mountain where it was about twenty degrees cooler and take a bike ride and have a picnic. (Another very crooked horizon in this photo….I had my little camera and the viewing screen is nothing but glare sometimes in the bright sun so I have no idea if what I am shooting is crooked or not.)
The trail was fairly crowded with others that shared our idea to cool off. We pedaled about eight miles round trip but since the temperatures were so much cooler, it was very enjoyable.
We mostly stayed in the forest but at one point we veered over to the lake and sat in the shade and had a drink.
Along the trail there were patches of Indian Paintbrush blooming like orange pokers tucked in and around the green grasses.
This pretty pink flower was blooming as well.
This was the first time I noticed this particular sign on a tree near where we stopped to picnic. I thought the graphic was rather clever.
It just so happened that this guy was trying to find a meal as well. He checked out under our table but then decided to dig little holes to see what he could munch on.
I actually was able to get rather close to take this photo since he was occupied with something tasty. He is a Golden-mantled ground squirrel….which looks like a chipmunk but with no stripes on his head.
We had a very refreshing day on the bike trail and there were plenty of interesting things to keep us entertained.
Summer afternoon hike at the lake…not just any lake but a sparkling alpine lake.
The trail is narrow and winds along the shore of the bay. I talked to another hiker along the trail and he was telling me he thinks the view on this trail is in his “top ten” views in the world. It is amazingly gorgeous. The colors of the water are so blue and the mountains, still with a little snow on the tops, are majestic. (The horizon line in this photo is so crooked that it really bothers me but I love this photo of my youngest stopped in the middle of the trail, taking in the panorama.)
It was nice to have my oldest son along since he is a photographer as well. He captured some great shots of the water and the surrounding mountains. We gave each other photography tips and support. He is such a tech guy and I am very much *not* a tech person but photography is a language that we speak in common.
This was a new wildflower to us…so bright pink. I had an inkling it was some kind of penstemon. I came home and looked it up and sure enough, Cliff Penstemon or Rock Penstemon-Penstemon rupicola, figwort family.
Here is the waterfall at the end of the trail. This was a 1.7 mile hike from the trailhead which runs Emerald Bay Campground to Eagle Falls. The falls were hard to capture in a photograph because the sun was behind them at this point late in the afternoon. You can imagine the waterfall roaring and the mist blowing over to us, cooling us off. It was very refreshing.
From the waterfall we hiked down to the shore of the lake to wade in the water and have a snack. The beach had a dozen or so Canada Geese. Look at those feet! They are really big birds with really big feet.
After we hiked back to the car, we drove to our favorite beach to have a picnic dinner. There were lots and lots of Mule’s ear blooming. We enjoyed our food and then walked along the shore one last time before heading home for the day.
One last photo for those that wonder about bears….here is the sign at the place we had our picnic.
No bears on this day. We have encountered bears before in this area and we agree with what the sign says, “Appreciate the experience and move on….”. The bears we have seen in the wild are usually too busy doing other stuff to take much heed of our presence. It is usually a pleasant experience and not one to be feared.
What a refreshing, fun afternoon and evening. We all are looking forward to our next trip to the lake.
We spent four days hiking several sections of the Oregon Coast Trail……a trail that extends from the California border to the Washington border along the Pacific Ocean.
This trail has some fabulous and surprising views and the sections we hiked were mostly within the Samuel Boardman State Scenic Corridor. If you ever have the chance to even hike a mile or so along this trail, grab it and enjoy the tall trees, the green ferns, and the views of the rugged and awesome Oregon Coast.
We camped at Harris Beach and four out of the five evenings were just like this….clear, sunny and filled with beautiful waves. We walked on the beach every night after dinner and then we would go back to the campsite and build a big campfire and roast marshmallows.
The first section we hiked started at Indian Sands and just like its name suggests, it has some huge sand dunes. The trail is a little sketchy at some points and you have to really hunt for signs but it is worth the effort. The dunes were perfect for running down or rolling down if you preferred.
Just around the corner from the dunes, the trail turns into a narrow path through wildflowers and Sitka spruce. Yes, that is the trail right along the cliff’s edge. It was a spectacular section of the trail and the wildflowers are so thick you have a hard time seeing them all. Wild strawberry, Indian paintbrush, wild iris, clover, daisies….I can’t even remember all the different flowers. We came back a second time to rehike this section because it was awesome.
The foxglove was dazzling and the forests were dotted with purple blossoms here and there. I love purple.
Another section of the trail leads down to China Beach. The trail was not well worn and was very narrow in sections but the wildflowers were spectacular. I loved this place and spent lots of time looking at all the different wildflowers. While I was busy doing that, the boys were busy doing something else.
Another day we drove farther north and caught up with the trail at Cape Blanco. It was a little cooler and definitely more windy here and if you look closely in the background of the photo above, you will see the lighthouse. This was a fantastic place with a huge campground. We would like to come back to Cape Blanco some day and camp for a few days to explore more. This time though we hiked the bluffs and then headed down to the beach to see if we could find some tidepools.
Monkey flower, clover, and lupine all make a lovely mix of colors.
We did find a few tidepools and these snails in the splash zone. We watched them climb around for a few minutes and then we had the most fabulous time watching the birds at the beach. We saw mostly crows and turkey vultures but a few swallows, gulls, and songbirds as well.
The next morning found us hiking along the section of the Oregon Coast Trail at Thunder Rock. The trees were so thick along the path that it was quite dark and eerie. We had the trail to ourselves and when we broke out of the trees, we saw the view above. A spectacular cove with an arch rock and pretty clear water.
This invertebrate was crossing the path and he was the most beautiful snail that I have ever seen, if that is even possible for a snail to be beautiful.
The turn around spot on this section of the trail was a place called Secret Beach. The water was here and the beach, although small, was very nice.
I encourage families to consider a trip to the Oregon Coast and try some of the Oregon Coast Trail….you will not soon forget the beauty and the wonder of this unique place.
Figwort Family, blooms March-August, great source of nectar for hummingbirds.
This is the third kind of monkeyflower we have identified this year!
The river was so green and lovely as we hiked along the trail. There were a few people floating down in tubes, enjoying the the cold water and the hot sun.
If you are interested, I have been updating my Yosemite Wildflower blog this week and I would love for you to pop over there and check it out. Here is the link: Yosemite Wildflowers
All of the photos are from our trips last summer to Yosemite. I am aiming to finish all of the photos I have stored up before we take our next trip in July. I still have quite a few to go, but I am making headway.
It truly is amazing that I have been working on documenting the local wildflowers for months now and I am still finding new flowers every day. I did not imagine that this project would become so big that I would be fighting to keep up. Here is the latest batch of wildflowers from our walking trail.
Tufted Vetch….when you stop to really look at the vetch it is gorgeous.
Look at the purple details on the blooms.
I love that there are new things to learn about around every corner. My boys are beginning to spot new flowers as we walk along and that makes me very happy. 🙂
We have taken walks at least once a day for the last week and it feels great to be outdoors so much with the family. We had a picnic today…nothing special, just some sandwiches and drinks but the view of the river was perfect.
We also saw a this young deer that became like a statue when we stopped to take his photo. Look at those ears.
You will have to click the photo to zoom in on the deer.
I think that catches us up for now with the wildflowers. We are on the downhill slide towards summer now so things will change again around here as far as what is blooming.
I have been on the look out for the first of the Queen Anne’s lace of the season and yesterday I saw it alongside our walking trail.
My local field guide says this:
“Wild carrot, or Queen Anne’s lace, is a biennial and its large root distinguishes it from the more common rattlesnake weed. Also, Queen Anne’s lace is a common name used for many species of plants with delicate white flowers.”
Here is a section of the Handbook of Nature Study, page 542:
“…this medallion flower attributed to Queen Anne is well worth studying. It belongs to the family Umbelliferae, which one of my small pupils always called ‘umbrelliferae’because, he averred, they have umbrella blossoms. In the case of Queen Anne’s lace the flower-cluster, or umbel, is made up of many smaller umbels, each a most perfect flower-cluster in itself.”
“The wild carrot is known in some localities as the ‘bird’s-nest weed, ‘ because the maturing fruit-clusters, their edges curving inward look like little birds’ nests.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 544
I know that spring is well along now that the Queen Anne’s Lace is in bloom. It will be here all summer to enjoy.
Here are a few of the websites I have used in my study of wildflowers this term:
CalFlora.org -specific to California and free to join. Northwest Common Wildflowers -National Park service coloring book California Wildflowers -California Academy of Sciences, index by color.
This completes our families focus work on flowers, both in our garden and with a few wildflowers. We are going to be choosing a new focus for the summer… probably butterflies! Get ready to see what we learn and how we get started.
One of our Spring Break days was filled with a delightful hike in the river canyon. The weather could not have been better for this trip. You can see at the top of the photo the really tall bridge that they built when they thought they were going to dam this area and fill the whole canyon with water. This area would have been flooded with water and this beautiful stretch of the river would have been gone forever. I know there are reasons for dams but for now, I am really glad that they haven’t built it so we all can enjoy this natural beauty.
The boys opted to ride bikes this day and my hubby and I walked. I am just now feeling confident to give the boys the freedom to take off on their own. I know we live in a different world than I grew up in, and it seems sad that I have to think twice about allowing them to have an adventure on their without worrying that something bad might happen. It feels better to allow a little more freedom gradually and build up my confidence and trust that they will make good decisions.
This particular hike along the confluence and then the North Fork of the American River starts off fairly level. It is then what we like to refer to the up, down, up, down kind of trail.
You hike up out of the canyon to the top of a small dam that holds back water to form a lake. You actually hike above the dam and then you hike back down again. This means when you turn around to go back you repeat the up, down, up, down process over again in reverse.
Here the trail comes out of the woods and out into the open at the spillway. If you look closely, you will see a rainbow above the mist.
This shows the lake behind the dam. This lake is a beautiful lake that we have spent quite a bit of time boating on as well as camping up at the upper end. You have to boat in all your stuff since there is no road access. It is quiet and peaceful and in the summertime the water is cool and clear. The boys made it up to the lake quite a bit faster than we did since they were on bikes. They spent some time exploring the boat ramp and the little marina.
They got tired of waiting at one point and here is where we met them on the road to the dam. We met only one other couple hiking and one other bike rider so we felt like we had the trail to ourselves which is nice.
The hike back down from the lake was very enjoyable and the trail meanders along the side of the river. The wildflowers were blooming in masses and we would take a break every now and then to just enjoy the experience quietly.
The sound of the river was pleasant and we heard lots of birds as well.
You might not believe me but we live about 30 minutes from this place and we have never hiked here before. I am always amazed that we have missed out on so many beautiful places just because I am too lazy to research new areas to hike.
I found a book that includes local hikes of all types and I am determined to find new and interesting places to try more frequently.
Here is a place we took a picnic lunch to this past Monday. We had rain all weekend but when the rain stopped late Monday morning, I prepared some sandwiches and drinks and loaded the car. It is the first time we hiked down to the river here although we drive by many times a week. We never knew there was a trail alongside the river, but now that we know about it, we will be here frequently to enjoy the water.
We took a short hike and found a great place on the shore that had rocks perfect for sitting on and watching the water flow by. This is a shot from my rock as I enjoyed my sandwich.
The river was really high and normally you can walk out to these rocks but not today. 🙂
This is a prime place for kayakers and in the summertime they boat this stretch of the river en masse.
If anyone is interested, this is the South Fork of the American River. The hike at the beginning of the post is the North Fork. Both hikes are on the same river but above where they meet at Folsom Lake.
I think I have one more hike to catch up on from our Spring Break romps but then I will have a treat for you next week…..Yosemite again. Can you hardly wait?
“This felt on the mullein is beautiful when looked at through the microscope; it consists of a fretwork of little, white, sharp spikes…..I soon discovered another means by which the mullein resists drought, when I tried to dig up the plant with a stick; I followed its taproot down far enough to understand that it was a subsoiler and reached below most other plants for moisture and food.”
HNS, page 537
This is the first time I have left the mullein in the flower bed. I am curious to see just how large it will get and I am anxious for the boys to study the flower stalk once it starts to blossom.
I think I am beginning to see the value of learning about a plant *before* it blooms so we will be vigilantly watching its progress. We read through the information in the Handbook of Nature Study. We had already experienced the long tap root when we were pulling it out of the pathway a few days ago. I would say that the root was about two feet long and at the top it looked like the shape of a carrot. The plants we left in the bed are growing like crazy!
That was our flower this week, now you can pick your flower and see if you can be prepared for your next flower study. 🙂 We have three more flowers we want to study before we finish with Wednesday Flower Study day. You can join us any time you want to, with any flower you want to. You do not need to study the same flower we are if you don’t want to.
I am so far behind in recording our hikes. I haven’t even touched the photos from two weeks ago when we did twenty-six miles of hiking. I am sort of in a slump about posting for some reason.
Here are a few photos from today’s hike with the two older boys.
The trail in this section has grown over with greenery. You can still find a narrow path through the woods but it is just about covered up with grasses and flowers. Now that spring is here the trail is a whole different world.
Here is the view at the one end of the trail. The river is really running fast and high. The sound as you round the corner is amazing. Soon there will be whitewater rafters and kayakers on the water. Right now the water temperature is pretty cold. The other day we had a glimpse of a boat full of rafters but they were wearing drysuits.
This is about the only new flower blooming along the trail that I noticed today. I think it is some sort of caterpillar flower.
Monday we went on a picnic lunch…boxed up some sandwiches and bottles of water and took an hour or so to enjoy the opportunity.
The view from my picnic spot on a rock was very peaceful and I soaked up the sun. The sound of the water flowing by was relaxing and I could have sat there for a very long time but the men were anxious to move along. This is the same river that is in the photo above but this time we were down at the shore and down about ten miles.
I gathered a few rocks from my sitting spot and realized when I looked at the photo that the white rock looks like a heart.
The trail here is overgrown too….gorgeous.
Here is a photo I tried to take of the rafters as they floated by. If you look closely, you can see their blue raft behind the bushes.
The fairy lanterns are blooming thickly along this part of the river.
One last photo from yesterday’s hike….lupine like I have never seen it before. It is a banner year for the lupine in our area.
The amazing thing about wildflowers that I have come to appreciate is that although they are randomly planted and grow pretty much wherever the conditions are right, they look just perfect. Better than any garden planting that I have every seen.
What a time of year for getting outdoors every day.
The Common or Field Buttercup-Handbook of Nature Study, pages 516-518
“The buttercups, bright-eyed and bold,
Held up their chalices of gold
To catch the sunshine and the dew.”
“Common buttercups and daisies are always associated in the minds of the children, because they grow in the same fields’ yet the two are so widely different in structure that they may reveal to the child something of the marvelous differences between common flowers; the buttercup is a single flower, while the single daisy is a large group of tiny flowers.”
This sounds like a great way to learn about some common flowers in the garden.
We have a spot that we hike to that has a whole hillside of buttercups.
We didn’t complete an in depth study this week but we did complete our observations and then a journal entry. I know you all must think that we spend oodles of time each week in nature study but in all honesty, some weeks we just *enjoy* getting outdoors without much preparation or follow-up.
I would rather we aim for making our outdoor time as regular as possible, have some focus to start off with, and leave things open and flexible if something happens to catch our attention.
Here is something we found on the trail that caught our eye this week. Butterflies!
I know this one is dead but it did give us an excellent opportunity to examine this creature up close.
The blue is iridescent in this swallowtail…so pretty.
This painted lady let me come very close and get a good photo. She was very busy sipping nectar from the wildflowers in this sunny spot alongside the trail.
We were watching these swallowtails for a very long time. I love to watch them flutter around in the sunshine as they gather their meal. Click to see this one better. 🙂
Our garden is coming alive with colors. I am not sure what we will study for next week yet.
Now is your chance to go outside and pick a flower to study from your yard. It does not have to be a buttercup but something that you can observe from your neighborhood. Pick your flower and then look it up in the Handbook of Nature Study.
