Wednesday, May 15, 2024

CCC RIDGE TO DARK CANYON


A few weeks ago, I re-visited these two areas and brought along two friends including a new hiking buddy.

It was a cool, overcast morning and the CCC ridge was filled with wildflowers. Still a bit overgrown but it was nice. We hiked down to the mini waterfall and I showed my friends where the BM was that most hikers don't take notice.

We found mushrooms and the Humboldt Lillies that where there last year hadn't bloomed yet. But by looking at the amount of long stems it will soon be very plentiful along this portion of the trail. I'm looking forward to going back soon.

After a short break at the waterfall we started to hike up the ridge. The trail was very loose and the trail gets lost almost impossible to follow but we carefully got through it.

The fog was so dense that we couldn't see the other big waterfall from the top but we could hear the water flowing.

After descending the ridge back to the highway, we walked a short distance to Dark Canyon trail.

I met Bill Bovard who was doing trail work. He's the one who restored a trail from Clemons Saddle.

We were surprisingly amazed by more wildflowers and an abundance of Rockrose flowers that are quite often mistaken for Matalija poppies. There were many varieties and the bees were loving them. The Rockrose wildflowers were all along the fire road for quite a long distance.

Last time I was there, I didn't see any. It was such a beautiful sight to see. Of course I took tons of pictures.

Anyways, we did a loop and met Bill Bovard at the saddle as he continued his hard work on the trail.