Anza-Borrego: Plant Guide To Villager Peak Trail

This is a working list, about which I make no guarantees at all until I officially release it. Use at your own risk! In particular, note that this trail guide is very incomplete for annuals and perennials, due to limited rainfall at the time the trail was surveyed

Introduction and Explanation of Plant Trail Guides
Introduction
Highlights of This Trail
Fieldwork Dates and Summary of List Changes With Time
Botanical Trip Reports
The Plant Guide
Comments On Specific Species
Introduction

The Villager Peak Trail climbs a north-south ridgeline of the Santa Rosa Mountains that is directly north of the Borrego Badlands and directly east of Clark Dry Lake. Even the lowermost portion of that ridgeline gives excellent views of the Borrego Valley and surrounding mountains, especially of the Borrego Badlands, with distant views into Mexico.
This is an unsigned use trail. The trail begins at milepost 31.8 on Highway S22 at its junction with the Truckhaven Trail, at Call Box S22-319, and one simply heads north toward the easternmost tip of Lute Ridge. The first 0.64 miles are in a wash, and I found two different paths with a number of footprints; both are shown in the map below. This makes it difficult to create a single plant trail guide, so you may have to look on the other path for a listed species.
Once at the east end of Lute Ridge, the trail becomes very clearly defined and well marked with cairns. From that point on, there should be no ambiguity in following the plant trail guide.
The trail stays in the flattish dissected alluvial plane, with a net gain of only 215 feet of elevation, until mile 1.3, where the fun begins elevation-wise. The trail leaves the wash and ascends a steep cliff on a well-marked, switchbacked trail to get on the north-south ridgeline. Once on the ridgeline, the views open up, and the trail beckons one further to see what each step forward on the ridgeline will reveal.
The trail is described in Schad, Afoot and Afield in San Diego County. Schad says that Villager and Rabbit Peaks are among the most popular destinations for peak-baggers in the Anza-Borrego Desert. The round trip to Villager Peak is 13 miles, with 5000 feet of elevation gain and loss.
I have surveyed only to mile 2.34, making a round trip of 4.7 miles with 2400 feet of elevation gain and loss. That portion of the trail is shown in the map below.

See also:

The Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association's Lute Fault Scarp
Bill Sullivan's Villager Peak Walk
Bob Burd's Villager Peak / Rabbit Peak
hpshiker's 22 February 2003 photos
cluggish's 18 April 2005 photos.

Highlights of This Trail

The following histogram gives the number of trails in my database that contain each taxon on this trail. I had 124 trails in my database when this histogram was made; 10 of those trails, including this one, are in Anza-Borrego State Park. A number of "1" means the taxon has only been found only on this list, among all the trails in our database; numbers of "10" or smaller may indicate taxa found only in this area. Some of the other Anza-Borrego Trails are very incomplete.

Number of Trails
Containing A Taxon Number Of Taxa
On This Trail % of Taxa
On This Trail
1 0 0%
2 0 0%
3 4 9%
4 1 2%
5 3 7%

1-5 8 18%
6-10 12 27%
11-15 11 24%
16-20 10 22%
21-25 1 2%
26-30 3 7%
Total Taxa 45 100%

I found 9 additional taxa not in the above table, since they have not been fully identified yet. The unidentified ones are marked with ?, sp or ssp in the id? column in the guide, and have no entries in the #all column.
Fieldwork Dates and Summary of List Changes With Time

The following table gives the dates the trail was walked and taxa recorded. After each visit, the table gives the total number of taxa on the list and the breakdown of the taxa without positive identification. See Explanation of Plant Trail Guides to understand the symbols below.

Visit Date Visit # # taxa # "?" # "sp" # "~" # "ssp"
1/29/2008 1 54 1 7 9 1

The trail was only covered to mile 2.34 on 1/29/08.
Botanical Trip Reports

29 January 2008
The Plant Guide

The mileages have been obtained from a GPS recording for the species, which did not capture the switchbacks in the trail. Furthermore, the trail is ill-defined for the first 0.64 miles, so your route may not match the route I took. The relative mileages are probably accurate to ~0.02 miles, with the absolute accuracy somewhat worse.
Because I didn't think this trail was going to be well enough defined to create a plant trail guide on my first trip, I didn't record which side of the trail the species were found. I supplied some sides from memory.
Version for printing, without lines and other text on this page: html (3 pages) or pdf Clickbook booklet (1 double-sided page). (See printing instructions for an explanation of these options)
See Explanation of Plant Trail Guides for an explanation of the column headers.

mile s # id FAM Common Name Latin Name #here #all
0.00 Begin guide at Call Box S22-319 at jct. of S22 and Truckhaven Trail; head north toward easternmost tip of Lute Ridge on either one of two use trails; elevation ~965 feet (294 m)
0.00 l 1 ZYG creosote bush Larrea tridentata 99 / 9 17
0.00 b 2 BRA *Asian mustard Brassica tournefortii 99 / 9 13
0.00 b 3 AST burroweed Ambrosia dumosa 99 / 9 19
0.01 4 LIL desert lily Hesperocallis undulata 10 / 3 3
0.02 5 FAB Emory's indigo-bush Psorothamnus emoryi 2 / 1 6
0.02 6 sp BOR popcorn flower / combseed Cryptantha / Pectocarya sp. 99 / 9
0.02 7 ~ POA *Mediterranean schismus Schismus barbatus 99 / 9 30
0.04 8 KRA white rhatany Krameria grayi 30 / 9 11
0.04 9 ~ ONA California suncup Camissonia californica 99 / 9 30
0.05 10 CAC silver cholla Opuntia echinocarpa 50 / 9 5
0.05 11 sp POA Vulpia or Aristida sp. /
0.06 12 POA big galleta Pleuraphis rigida 20 / 5 13
0.07 13 sp AST pebble or desert pincushion Chaenactis carphoclinia or C. stevioides 50 / 9
0.10 b 14 FOU ocotillo Fouquieria splendens ssp. splendens 99 / 9 17
0.12 15 CAC pencil cholla Opuntia ramosissima 30 / 9 10
0.18 16 CAC California barrel cactus Ferocactus cylindraceus⁺ 99 / 9 14
0.19 l 17 AST button encelia Encelia frutescens 20 / 5 4
0.22 l 18 ASC rush milkweed Asclepias subulata 3 / 2 3
0.24 19 AST wire-lettuce Stephanomeria pauciflora var. pauciflora 5 / 3 19
0.25 20 LOA Thurber's sandpaper-plant Petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi 10 / 3 6
0.27 21 FAB indigo bush Psorothamnus schottii 30 / 7 18
0.28 l 22 LAM desert lavender Hyptis emoryi 30 / 5 15
0.28 l 23 ~ ACA chuparosa Justicia californica 1 / 1 12
0.28 l 24 AST cheesebush Hymenoclea salsola var. salsola 20 / 5 16
0.29 l 25 AST sweetbush Bebbia juncea var. aspera 20 / 7 21
0.31 r 26 BOR Palmer's coldenia Tiquilia palmeri 2 / 1 5
0.32 r 27 ~ ONA Booth's desert primrose Camissonia boothii ssp. condensata 20 / 7 7
0.34 28 ~ FAB Arizona lupine Lupinus arizonicus 20 / 5 3
0.34 29 sp PAP small-flowered or Parish's poppy Eschscholzia minutiflora or E. parishii 20 / 5
0.37 30 ~ AST desert chicory Rafinesquia neomexicana 10 / 3 7
0.38 r 31 POL desert trumpet Eriogonum inflatum 5 / 3 12
0.38 32 EUP small-seeded spurge Chamaesyce polycarpa 10 / 3 27
0.40 33 MAL rock hibiscus Hibiscus denudatus 30 / 9 8
0.42 34 ? POR desert red maids? Calandrinia ambigua? 2 / 2
0.42 35 sp BOR popcorn flower Cryptantha sp. /
0.58 36 AST brittlebush Encelia farinosa 99 / 9 20
0.60 37 ~ ONA dune primrose Oenothera deltoides ssp. deltoides 5 / 1 3
0.64 Jct. Lute Ridge to west; pick up very clear use trail rounding ridge, well marked with cairns; elevation 1040 feet (317 m)
0.89 38 NYC wishbone plant Mirabilis bigelovii var. retrorsa 3 / 3 8
0.89 39 sp LOA blazing star Mentzelia sp. 99 / 9
0.90 40 CAC beavertail cactus Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris 10 / 9 20
0.97 r 41 ~ POL star gilia Gilia stellata 1 / 1 5
1.00 42 CAC Gander's cholla Opuntia ganderi 99 / 9 16
1.08 l 43 FAB catclaw Acacia greggii 3 / 1 16
1.12 Check for different Camissonia or Mentzelia sp.
1.18 l 44 ZYG California fagonia Fagonia laevis 3 / 3 11
1.19 45 EUP narrowleaf ditaxis Ditaxis lanceolata 10 / 3 9
1.21 r 46 AST Emory's rock-daisy Perityle emoryi 2 / 1 10
1.22 r 47 PTE woolly lipfern Cheilanthes parryi 10 / 1 8
1.24 b 48 sp NYC spiderling Boerhavia sp. 30 / 1
1.27 l 49 FAB smoke tree Psorothamnus spinosus 1 / 1 10
1.31 Leave wash and ascend steep cliff on well-marked, switchbacked trail to get on ridge; elevation ~1180 feet (360 m)
1.32 50 ssp POA purple three-awn Aristida purpurea 30 / 9
1.45 51 CAC teddy-bear cholla Opuntia bigelovii 50 / 9 11
1.49 52 ~ PLA desert plantain Plantago ovata 50 / 9 11
1.84 53 KRA Pima rhatany Krameria erecta 10 / 9 6
1.96 54 LIL desert agave Agave deserti 20 / 4 11
2.34 End plant trail guide; elevation 2320 feet (707 m)
3.50 Elevation 3280 feet (1000 m); knob 3261 feet to right
4.50 Flattish area at elevation ~4300 feet (1310 m)
6.00 First area of green trees marked on topo map; elevation ~5300 feet (1615 m)
6.30 Peak just before Villager Peak; elevation 5640 feet (1719 m)
6.60 Villager Peak; elevation 5756 feet (1754 m)

Comments On Specific Species

Ferocactus cylindraceus. The varieties are not recognized in the Flora of North America treatment.

Number of Trails Containing A Taxon	Number Of Taxa On This Trail	% of Taxa On This Trail
1	0	0%
2	0	0%
3	4	9%
4	1	2%
5	3	7%

1-5	8	18%
6-10	12	27%
11-15	11	24%
16-20	10	22%
21-25	1	2%
26-30	3	7%
Total Taxa	45	100%

Visit Date	Visit #	# taxa	# "?"	# "sp"	# "~"	# "ssp"
1/29/2008	1	54	1	7	9	1

mile	s	#	id	FAM	Common Name	Latin Name	#here	#all
0.00				Begin guide at Call Box S22-319 at jct. of S22 and Truckhaven Trail; head north toward easternmost tip of Lute Ridge on either one of two use trails; elevation ~965 feet (294 m)
0.00	l	1		ZYG	creosote bush	Larrea tridentata	99 / 9	17
0.00	b	2		BRA	*Asian mustard	Brassica tournefortii	99 / 9	13
0.00	b	3		AST	burroweed	Ambrosia dumosa	99 / 9	19
0.01		4		LIL	desert lily	Hesperocallis undulata	10 / 3	3
0.02		5		FAB	Emory's indigo-bush	Psorothamnus emoryi	2 / 1	6
0.02		6	sp	BOR	popcorn flower / combseed	Cryptantha / Pectocarya sp.	99 / 9
0.02		7	~	POA	*Mediterranean schismus	Schismus barbatus	99 / 9	30
0.04		8		KRA	white rhatany	Krameria grayi	30 / 9	11
0.04		9	~	ONA	California suncup	Camissonia californica	99 / 9	30
0.05		10		CAC	silver cholla	Opuntia echinocarpa	50 / 9	5
0.05		11	sp	POA		Vulpia or Aristida sp.	/
0.06		12		POA	big galleta	Pleuraphis rigida	20 / 5	13
0.07		13	sp	AST	pebble or desert pincushion	Chaenactis carphoclinia or C. stevioides	50 / 9
0.10	b	14		FOU	ocotillo	Fouquieria splendens ssp. splendens	99 / 9	17
0.12		15		CAC	pencil cholla	Opuntia ramosissima	30 / 9	10
0.18		16		CAC	California barrel cactus	Ferocactus cylindraceus⁺	99 / 9	14
0.19	l	17		AST	button encelia	Encelia frutescens	20 / 5	4
0.22	l	18		ASC	rush milkweed	Asclepias subulata	3 / 2	3
0.24		19		AST	wire-lettuce	Stephanomeria pauciflora var. pauciflora	5 / 3	19
0.25		20		LOA	Thurber's sandpaper-plant	Petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi	10 / 3	6
0.27		21		FAB	indigo bush	Psorothamnus schottii	30 / 7	18
0.28	l	22		LAM	desert lavender	Hyptis emoryi	30 / 5	15
0.28	l	23	~	ACA	chuparosa	Justicia californica	1 / 1	12
0.28	l	24		AST	cheesebush	Hymenoclea salsola var. salsola	20 / 5	16
0.29	l	25		AST	sweetbush	Bebbia juncea var. aspera	20 / 7	21
0.31	r	26		BOR	Palmer's coldenia	Tiquilia palmeri	2 / 1	5
0.32	r	27	~	ONA	Booth's desert primrose	Camissonia boothii ssp. condensata	20 / 7	7
0.34		28	~	FAB	Arizona lupine	Lupinus arizonicus	20 / 5	3
0.34		29	sp	PAP	small-flowered or Parish's poppy	Eschscholzia minutiflora or E. parishii	20 / 5
0.37		30	~	AST	desert chicory	Rafinesquia neomexicana	10 / 3	7
0.38	r	31		POL	desert trumpet	Eriogonum inflatum	5 / 3	12
0.38		32		EUP	small-seeded spurge	Chamaesyce polycarpa	10 / 3	27
0.40		33		MAL	rock hibiscus	Hibiscus denudatus	30 / 9	8
0.42		34	?	POR	desert red maids?	Calandrinia ambigua?	2 / 2
0.42		35	sp	BOR	popcorn flower	Cryptantha sp.	/
0.58		36		AST	brittlebush	Encelia farinosa	99 / 9	20
0.60		37	~	ONA	dune primrose	Oenothera deltoides ssp. deltoides	5 / 1	3
0.64				Jct. Lute Ridge to west; pick up very clear use trail rounding ridge, well marked with cairns; elevation 1040 feet (317 m)
0.89		38		NYC	wishbone plant	Mirabilis bigelovii var. retrorsa	3 / 3	8
0.89		39	sp	LOA	blazing star	Mentzelia sp.	99 / 9
0.90		40		CAC	beavertail cactus	Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris	10 / 9	20
0.97	r	41	~	POL	star gilia	Gilia stellata	1 / 1	5
1.00		42		CAC	Gander's cholla	Opuntia ganderi	99 / 9	16
1.08	l	43		FAB	catclaw	Acacia greggii	3 / 1	16
1.12				Check for different Camissonia or Mentzelia sp.
1.18	l	44		ZYG	California fagonia	Fagonia laevis	3 / 3	11
1.19		45		EUP	narrowleaf ditaxis	Ditaxis lanceolata	10 / 3	9
1.21	r	46		AST	Emory's rock-daisy	Perityle emoryi	2 / 1	10
1.22	r	47		PTE	woolly lipfern	Cheilanthes parryi	10 / 1	8
1.24	b	48	sp	NYC	spiderling	Boerhavia sp.	30 / 1
1.27	l	49		FAB	smoke tree	Psorothamnus spinosus	1 / 1	10
1.31				Leave wash and ascend steep cliff on well-marked, switchbacked trail to get on ridge; elevation ~1180 feet (360 m)
1.32		50	ssp	POA	purple three-awn	Aristida purpurea	30 / 9
1.45		51		CAC	teddy-bear cholla	Opuntia bigelovii	50 / 9	11
1.49		52	~	PLA	desert plantain	Plantago ovata	50 / 9	11
1.84		53		KRA	Pima rhatany	Krameria erecta	10 / 9	6
1.96		54		LIL	desert agave	Agave deserti	20 / 4	11
2.34				End plant trail guide; elevation 2320 feet (707 m)
3.50				Elevation 3280 feet (1000 m); knob 3261 feet to right
4.50				Flattish area at elevation ~4300 feet (1310 m)
6.00				First area of green trees marked on topo map; elevation ~5300 feet (1615 m)
6.30				Peak just before Villager Peak; elevation 5640 feet (1719 m)
6.60				Villager Peak; elevation 5756 feet (1754 m)

Go to:

Flora of Southeast Santa Rosa Mountains
Plants of Southern California: Trail Guides

Copyright © 2008 by Tom Chester
Permission is freely granted to reproduce any or all of this page as long as credit is given to me at this source:
http://tchester.org/sd/plants/guides/anza_borrego/villager_peak.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester Last update: 31 January 2008.