March 8, 2024
This morning I am with the BAS Hiking group we have six people and will be hiking the foothills of Magnolia Ranch. We will go by the American river and up on top of some hills that should offer some beautiful views. The weather is comfortable with clear skies, and a bright sun.
The Rusty Popcorn flower is the first wildflower we’ve come upon for this hike. This is the time of season that it comes out and we expect to see a lot of it today. Just down the trail is a field full of Menzies Blue Eyes and more of the Popcorn flower along with this white flower with purple dots called the Fivespot.
We have an early view of the American river, which is flowing well today.
The Golden Ear is a fungus which has a part of it that looks like it’s starting to decompose, and we have termed it “the ooey gooey”. Growing close by is the California Buttercup.
The Wavy Leaf Soap plant has a root that can be ground up and used as a soap. Miners lettuce is another plant we’ve come across that is growing in many places. It is edible and tastes very much like a cross between spinach or butter lettuce.
This large, yellow Wild Daffodil is gorgeous.
We continued down the trail and had another good glimpse of the river as we came to a beautiful patch of more daffodils.
The Poets Narcissus is another species of daffodil mixed in with this field of yellow ones.
We’ve come to an interesting part of the trail that has a large grove of incense cedars.
As we approach the bridge over Hastings Creek, we also come to a rock wall built by early settlers
The purple Henderson’s Shooting Star has popped up on this section of trail
Our hike had been fairly level winding its way along the mid slope of the hills until we crossed the river, and then we started a consistent uphill portion of the hike. It did offer some beautiful views along the way.
As we continue uphill, the views get better and better the American river sits down below us.
We reached the top of the hill which offers great views of the American river on the opposite side of the hill we’ve just come up. A nice bench which overlooks the river offers a nice resting place.
After lunch, we continued along the ridge top trail. It eventually dropped us back down just before the bridge we crossed earlier. With more nice river views.
After crossing the bridge we again broke off the trail to do the last portion of our figure eight loop hike taking us down an old cattle Road back to the parking lot.
Our total hike was 6.76 miles with an elevation of 1020 feet
