Sunol: Maguire Peaks Trail

Mar 31, 2009 20:03

Sunol: Maguire Peaks Trail

On Saturday D. and I went back to Sunol Regional Wilderness to check out the Maguire Peaks Trail. We parked on Welch Creek Rd. and made our way along Upper Maguire Peaks Trail. I took the following pics:

Looking down Welch Creek Rd.  Cool and shady.



We saw buttercups everywhere.



The arrow says go that way.



Dichelostemma capitatum, commonly known as blue dicks.  It's a pretty flower! Stop giggling!



The trail (little more than a cow path) emerges from oak woodland to a brushy hillside.



The arrow says go that way.



The hills are still green, but it won't be long till they begin turning brown if we don't get any more rain this spring.





Some of the landscape is surreal-looking.



Purple owl's clover.



The arrow says go that way.



The arrow says go that way.



This little copse must have been planted during the park's pre-park days as a ranch.



Green hills.  Blue skies.  Oaks beginning to leaf.  Not a soul around.  It's as though we have all of creation to ourselves.



The arrow says go that way.



This dead tree is like a sentinel in the landscape.



Maguire Peaks eventually come into view.



The trail leads back into oak woodlands as it winds around a flank of the peaks.



A weathered oak log has been exposed to the elements for years.



The arrow says go that way.



The trail winds through a small meadow dotted with buttercups.



The arrow says go that way.



Turkey tail fungus on a dead log along the Lower Maguire Peaks Trail.





Looking up into one of the bigleaf maples lining Welch Creek Rd.



We cannot figure out why a little-used dead-end single-lane winding road needs a stop sign halfway up. 



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D. took the following pics:

A look at shady Welch Creek.



A scarlet pimpernel.  (Yes, it's a flower and not just some fictional literary dude from the French Revolution.)



Blue-eyed grass.  It's not a true grass, but in the iris family.



The lupines are just beginning to pop into flower.



Miner's lettuce has a tiny white flower.  The plant is edible.



The enormous valley oaks are starting to leaf.



Their massive contorted limbs are softened by the gentle fuzz of new green growth.



The arrow says go that way.



Purple owl's clover



One of the many red-tailed hawks soaring over the hillsides.



California poppies stand head and shoulders above the smaller wildflowers in this meadow.



The arrow says go that way.



A hint of the kind of displays in store as the wildflower season gets into full swing.



Blue dicks waving about in the sunshine.  It's a very beautiful flower! Stop giggling! 



The cow path, I mean, the Upper Maguire Peaks Trail leads from bright meadow into shady oak woodlands.



I almost expect to see hobbits romping across the landscape.



Out in the middle of nowhere we find a drinking fountain a few yards off the trail. 



It's a buttercup splosion! 



Maidenhair ferns grow along the shady Lower Maguire Peaks Trail where it follows a Welch Creek tributary stream.



Pretty white fleurs, I don't know what they are.



It's another buttercup splosion!



Walking back to the car along Welch Creek Rd., we see dozens of bigleaf maples in bloom.  Maple flowers are sweet and edible and are good in salads.



Wooly paintbrush..



It grows parasitically on the roots of other plants.

.

california poppy, arrow, sunol, field trip, valley oak, maple, fern, red-tailed hawk, maguire peaks, stop sign

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