May 17, 2020
Cindy always takes me out on interesting trips to her favorite places each weekend. This past weekend, she proposed a trip back to her workplace, Fort Hunter Liggett, and then through it to a wonderful corner of the Los Padres National Forest. She said she had three goals: find and photograph an elk herd, find the harlequin lupine, and locate some band-tailed pigeons. Plus she knew of a couple of trails we could hike. And in case that wasn't enough, she offered to take me out to supper. Of course, she had me at let's go out, so I promised to be ready to drive out at 6:00 A.M. as we had an hour's drive ahead of us.
The day started off sunny and calm, but by the time we reached the base, we were seeing clouds building, making for photographic opportunities. And at our first stop, we saw elk- but further away than we could photograph them. We went to a parallel road and found those wiley beasts had figured out how to be equidistant from the two roads. So we gave up on those and went on to a second place where Cindy often spots elk. There we had a much better view of a much bigger herd - probably thirty-five individuals. I saw a buck with nubs in my binoculars but didn't capture him in my photographs - I was only able to take a few parts of the herd.
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| Storm clouds coming off the coast |
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| While stratocumulus clouds formed in the east |
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| Some of the elk herd we saw resting in the shadows under oaks |
We checked off that objective and went on to hunt for the harlequin lupine. That was a much harder goal to achieve. We looked, gave up, hiked, then, as we continued our exploration of the forest, Cindy suddenly recognized a side road we were exploring as THE ROAD. Five minutes later we found several patches of the harlequin lupine growing in very poor, gravely soil.
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| Harkequin lupin (Lupinus stiversii) |
Most of our day involved traveling several of the little side roads that lead to dispersed campsites with stops to photograph flowers and other interesting sights. The first road had a little family camping in a pop-up trailer. We passed them and their dog as we drove down the road. But we stayed the most time at at a rocky outcropping that was the home of the Chumash Indians.
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San Antonio de Padua Mission - California's third mission built in 1771 - this is on the base
and is where we turned to get to the national forrest |
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| Another stop for the sky |
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| Several ruddy ducks were using the pond we revisited on the base |
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I was excited to find milkweed in abundant amounts. I didn't find any blooming plants
but think it is California milkweed ( Asclepias californica) |
We found a few grinding holes as we walked through a rocky area. But it wasn't until the following day that I found out I COULD have visited the wagon cave, an overhang that the Indians used for camping/housing. We hiked in clouds, mist, and a little sunshine, but the clouds mostly won. The area doesn't seem to have an official trail but is open to hiking, biking, and rock climbing, although you may not add pins to the rocks. I first did a trail that wound through the lower parts of the outcropping, and occasionally over the rocks, then went on the upper trail until I caught up with Cindy.
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| The beginning of our hike |
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| The outcropping near the beginning of the trail |
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| One of the narrow places I squeezed through |
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| Lanceleaf liveforever (Dudleya laceolata) was growing at eye level along a tiny dry stream in a lush bed of moss |
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| A grinding hole taken from almost straight down |
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When I popped out into a more open area, I saw a storm coming - we only got tiny sprinkles of rain
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| The path led over the front rock and then through the trees/rocks |
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| Sometimes it even ran over open ground |
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| These lupines were growing in the middle of the trail |
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| I caught up with Cindy on the upper trail as she stopped to admire the creek twenty feet down in the gorge |
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| A creek view from the top trail |
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| A little pool carved out of the rock |
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| I found a place just at the end of the pool and got a foot massage in a little waterfall - got clean toenails too |
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| I spotted this "Easter Eag" - about three feet high from the high trail |
We ended the day's explorations by continuing to the campground past which the road is closed, due to mudslides. But we captured several more interesting bugs and plants in stops along the way.
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| A bush katydid on a bush poppy flower |
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| I think this is cobwebby thistle |
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| Large milkweed bugs on California milkweed |
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| Santa Lucia sticky monkey flower |
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| Cobalt milkweed beetles - who could have guessed? |
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| 'Elegant clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata) |
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| Spotted cucumber beetle in bush poppy flower |
As for the band-tailed pigeons - they saved us for another day. But we got our supper at San Miguel at the Taco Mafia and brought home enough for a second, and maybe a third, meal. That delicious supper just topped an outstanding day.
