Blog

Sporadic dispatches from the hinterlands.

Garrapata

It’s been a cool and moist spring after a winter of heavy rains, and the local landscapes still haven’t completely turned from green to gold. I made a day trip down to Garrapata State Park to see if there were any flowers left, and I wasn’t disappointed.

I hiked the Soberanes Canyon trail and then completed the loop up the Rocky Ridge trail and then a coastal loop, five or six miles and 1800 feet total (depending on which GPS unit I believe). The Rocky Ridge trail has been officially closed since 2016. I usually try to respect official closures, but this one might not re-open within my hiking lifetime, and, closed or not, is one of the most popular inland hikes in the Big Sur area. It’s very steep, and was never truly a constructed trail, but it’s well worth the struggle.

The higher elevation grassland in particular was covered in wildflowers, still going strong as the grasses started to dry up. Lazuli Buntings were singing all over, providing the background music as I took pictures of the flowers.

As I’ve been doing lately, I took a lot of ID shots of flowers (and some bugs):

We last visited Garrapata in 2021.

I used this helpful site for some of the plant identification:

https://montereywildflowers.com

The Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council has a Plant of the Month page with some of the same plants found in Big Sur.

Wildflowers on the Wilder Coast

Since it’s been such a good spring for wildflowers, I brought my phone along on a run up my usual coastal route at Wilder Ranch State Park.

Here’s an illustrated list of plants of Wilder Ranch State Park. It includes the inland hills as well as the coast, so it’s a long list.

Butano

Butano State Park has been mostly closed since the big fire in 2020. The upper fire roads were recently opened, so I took a jaunt up there to have a look. I did an 11-mile, 2,000 foot elevation gain loop. I planned to do a run/walk, but it turned into mostly walking at a brisk pace, with some stops for wildflower photos.

Useful wildflower ID sites:

Calflora

Wildflower Search

Half Moon Bay Wildflowers

On the way home from SFO, I headed down the coast and made a stop at Half Moon Bay. It’s June, but there are still a lot of wildflowers out. I snapped some phone pictures to help me identify (and maybe remember) the species.

For plant ID, I used this handy book:

Plants and Plant Communities of the San Mateo Coast by Avis Boutell, Toni Corelli, and Nancy Frost, published by the Coastside State Parks Association.