Don Rideout and I hiked the Glorietta / Juanito Canyon Loop on
Sunday, 1/22/23, and also did a small loop in upper Juanito Canyon.
We picked this area somewhat at random, since it was
predicted to be so cold in Borrego Springs that we had to stay at
lower elevation. In fact, even here, the temp was a chilly 55
deg at the start of our hike at 11:30 a.m., and an even chillier 52
deg at the end. It didn't help that there were some thin clouds
blocking the warm rays of the sun, as well as a breeze making it feel
even cooler.
But the weather worked out perfectly fine
for me since I had long pants and two sweatshirts, which I kept on
all day, and the bit of uphill returning to the car at the end
prevented me from being too cold at the end.
We were very
pleased with our choice of venue, since we observed the first
widespread germination of winter annuals. There were tons of
baby Phacelia distans; many baby Pholistoma membranaceum, white
fiesta flower; and scattered babies of other species. We
observed the first Pholistoma flower, and about ten of the very young
Diplacus bigelovii had their first flower.
Here are three
baby annuals in one of Don's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147178397
Two very young Diplacus bigelovii, from Don:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147219313
The first white fiesta flower, from Don:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147231390
It is unclear exactly which rainfall caused this
germination. It is unlikely these blooming plants germinated
from the 13 to 17 January rain, since there hasn't been enough time
for them to grow big enough for some to start blooming. We did
see lots of annuals with just cotyledons and the beginning of their
first true leaves, so those might have germinated from that
mid-January rain.
The other, more advanced annuals, had
to germinate from rain in November and/or December.
Borrego
Springs itself recorded essentially no rain in November and December,
but some of the widespread, heavy coastal and mountain rain in those
months may have just made it to Glorietta Canyon to cause this
germination.
The main point, of course, is that the
winter annuals are here, and yes, Virginia, there will be at least a
normal February / March bloom from these annuals in Glorietta
Canyon. I suspect that will also be true in the other canyons
on the west side of Borrego Springs.
Another
delight of this hike was to be at the top of Juanito Canyon, with a
wonderful view of the Borrego Springs area. There is now a
pretty good use trail that goes to the top, probably because this has
become a popular destination for young people. There was a group of 4
young people who hustled up to the top, not carrying any water, food
or backpacks, who spent 15 minutes to a half hour taking in the view
from up there (and maybe talking or texting on the phone, too).
Don
took these two pix of the view, and the ridge at the top of Juanito:
http://tchester.org/temp/230122/rideout/view_from_top_of_juanito_canyon_40.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/230122/rideout/view_ridge_at_top_of_juanito_canyon_40.jpg
We took another branch of upper Juanito Canyon
down. You can see both branches in Don's pix looking down the
ridge that divides the two branches:
http://tchester.org/temp/230122/rideout/view_down_top_of_juanito_canyon_40.jpg
Lower Juanito makes a hard left at the lowest elevation
of it seen in this pix. As seen in this pix, continuing
straight or a bit rightish from that low point climbs to a small
saddle with Glorietta Canyon.
Coincidentally, Don took a
pix from that small saddle showing me descending into Juanito Canyon:
http://tchester.org/temp/230122/rideout/tom_descending_into_juanito_canyon_from_glorietta_canyon_40.jpg
Juanito Canyon goes to my right from the lowest elevation
seen in this pix.
There was a surprise waiting for
us in lower Juanito Canyon! First, I had a brief whiff of
decomposition. A few minutes later, we saw what turned out to
probably be a mountain lion scrape. And then, boom! we saw this
bighorn sheep skeleton:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147232561
!!!
The odor of decomp was much stronger
here, which was a bit surprising since the skeleton looked pretty
darn clean.
There was also what could be mountain lion
poop near the carcass:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147240114
Don immediately reported the carcass to the Visitor
Center, and eventually learned that this ram was killed by a mountain
lion in May 2022, and was about as old as a ram usually lives, 10 to
12 years old. The ram was killed about 100 feet above the
canyon bottom, and then dragged and cached at this location.
Don
posted a total of 49 obs of 42 species at iNat:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2023-01-22&place_id=95385&user_id=lagoondon
We observed a total of 29 species in bloom, which
was more than we expected from this location. The list is at
the bottom of this email. Of those plants in bloom, only the
chuparosa plants could be considered showy.
Details:
It is always a delight to see the many plants of
Crossosoma in Juanito Canyon. Most of the plants were just
leafing out, but Don found one with a bud:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147178572
We found two ocotillos that were just leafing out
after the 13 to 17 January rain:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147237481
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147176893
We came across a pretty stunning hedgehog cactus,
and Don counted 62 stems, which is 3 more than the maximum number of
stems given for this species in the Jepson eFlora! (:-)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147225967
I decided to start keeping track of the number of stems
for this species. I looked through my pix and found a monster
plant that had at least 139 stems! See:
http://tchester.org/bd/species/cactaceae/echinocereus_engelmannii.html
We checked on the "rare Sonoran Hook-Snake",
and it fortunately was still there. (:-) I was absolutely
amazed that I went right to its location from memory, especially
since I think I wasn't able to find it the last time I looked for
it! See:
http://tchester.org/bd/species/cactaceae/rare_sonoran_hook_snake.html
Note especially the date at the bottom of the above page,
and the "odor" of the snake given in the last paragraph of
the story. (:-)
Here is the pix from this trip:
http://tchester.org/temp/tom/rare_sonoran_hook_snake.jpg
The "Snake" has grown quite a lot! (:-)
Note that the Ditaxis lanceolata next to it looks much
the same, still being eaten down to the same size.
It
was striking how many baby Encelia farinosa plants there were here.
We saw them in many places. There were also abundant baby
Ditaxis lanceolata plants.
We also have a mystery
plant or two, all in the same obs by Don:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147235428
Suggestions welcome! (:-)
On my
drive to Borrego, the Arctostaphylos glauca along SR76 were still in
bloom, and the A. pungens on SR79 just north of SR76 was also in
bloom.
List of species in bloom:
#Pls
in bloom Name
99 Bromus
madritensis ssp. rubens
99 Chamaesyce
polycarpa
99 Cryptantha angustifolia
99
Cryptantha maritima
99 Ditaxis lanceolata
99 Erodium cicutarium
99
Justicia californica
99 Perityle emoryi
30 Hyptis emoryi
20
Ditaxis neomexicana
20 Fagonia laevis
20
Senecio mohavensis
15 Palafoxia arida
var. arida
10 Mimulus bigelovii var.
bigelovii
10 Phacelia distans
5
Eriogonum thomasii
3 Encelia farinosa
3 Physalis crassifolia
2
Dalea mollissima
2 Eriogonum fasciculatum
var. polifolium
2 Eschscholzia minutiflora
ssp. minutiflora
2 Logfia depressa
2
Mentzelia involucrata
1 Bahiopsis
parishii
1 Brassica tournefortii
1
Cryptantha barbigera var. barbigera
1
Emmenanthe penduliflora var. penduliflora
1
Larrea tridentata
1 Pholistoma membranaceum
--
tom
chester
