North Table Mountain reserve

 March 25

Today I am hiking with five other people at the North Table Mountain Reserve.  I’m expecting to see a lot of a beautiful wildflowers and some pretty cool waterfalls. 

I’ve been here once before, and the last time, I dropped my phone on the first hundred feet it landed on volcanic rock and shattered my screen. I wasn’t able to do as many pictures or videos as I would like so I am hoping to get much more on this trip. 

Just as we start the trail, we come to large fields of the California Goldfield flower they’re growing in large groups around small fields of lava rock.

In one small area we have four different beautiful, small flowers, growing  together. Golden Desert Poppy , purple Sky Lupine, Hairy Pitted Storks Bill, and yellow Glue Seed.

Our next clump of flowers has long stemmed purple Blue Dicks and the white pedaled, Rusty Popcorn flower.

We crossed the first of what will be many beautiful water features today. This one sits within a beautiful flower covered hillside.

It seems like everywhere we look we’re coming up with different colores and species of flowers like more poppies, pink Kellogg’s Monkey flower I also got a picture of the yellow Seep Monkey flower

We get a little hint of what water features will be later in the trail. This is just a very small water Cascade we have larger waterfalls still ahead.

As we left the Mesa and came down the valley, we got to a small stream and looked up behind us to the left and saw a small waterfall. It’s not one of the ones on our list that we’re planning to see nonetheless it provides some beautiful pictures.

Again, we took another small side trail, climbed through a barbed wire fence and ended up alongside a little stream fed by Hollow Falls. Technically it’s a Cascade as there is no free fall of water, which is what defines the two.

We transitioned up out of the valley to some nice green Rolling Hills that had more beautiful views like the snow capped mountains far in front of us.

The trail passes through more oaks then by some small lava pools along the stream that add another dimension to the scenery that I have been seeing.

The trail takes us sharply uphill along a lava rock studded hillside filled in with beautiful multicolored wildflowers. The river is down below us carving a gorge into the valley in front of us.

We have come to a point on the top of the gorge that has an awesome view of Beaton Falls.  It’s a fantastic place to stop and have lunch.

We came up out of the valley and are now back on top of another mesa amongst wide open fields of more wildflowers.

These Mesa tops are pasturelands actively used for a cattle. There is a herd of them, relaxing in and around the small lakeshore to the left of our trail.

Having  traversed the width of the Mesa and reaching the opposite side, we will drop down into another valley on our way to Lower Ravine Falls.

As we dropped down into the ravine, we passed by a nice grove of Western Redbud trees that are flowering beautifully.

We cross a small stream which feeds Lower Ravine Falls after I cross I’m lead to a little outlook that looks back on the Falls just 30 or so feet below where we crossed.

After a good uphill cardio workout we reach yet another mesa. A half mile later we arrive at the overlook for Phantom Falls. This is the largest falls we see on this trail however it is on the other side of the ravine from us.

After leaving Phantom Falls, we drop back down into another valley. We can see a waterfall on the other side that we will be traveling to. The trail will pass just at its base.

Mid way down we pass new clumps of Red Larkspur. Its flowers are a bright red.

At The bottom of the trail, which led us into the valley and reach a small stream. After crossing a thin cut log bridge we arrive at A short side trail leading to the base of the falls.

We reached the base of the waterfall and stop for a group picture. I also got a picture with a new friend Jesse, who we met along the trail. He’s been hiking with us about half of our time.

We had one final uphill climb to the top of the final Mesa where the car is located.  We hiked 8.1 miles with an elevation gain of 932 feet. This was our warmest day so far this year at about 82° when we finished; although a little hot, the weather was fantastic and the scenery was incredible.