07 | July | 2023 | The Chubby Woman’s Walkabout ™

There was so much to look at during this trip, I know I’ll probably forget something. It was a long day for me, but FUN. My friend and fellow naturalist Roxanne and I documented over 130 species, including over 30 new-to-me “lifer” species. I got up around 5:30 AM, and got myself and my dog Esteban ready for when Roxanne picked us up for a drive to Lyons Creek Trail in the El Dorado National Forest.

To get to the trail is a straight-shot drive up Highway 50 East to Wrights Lake Road, then drive up that road for about 4 miles to get to the well-marked trailhead. You have to make a left turn onto Wrights Lake Road across the freeway with oncoming traffic, so be careful there if you go. And that road is paved but very narrow, so don’t drive too fast.

A few days before going on this trip, I checked out Charlie Russell’s Lyons Creek Wildflowers webpage. I gave me a heads up about the trail and what sorts of flowers we might see there. So helpful!

Roxanne was right on time [as per usual] and we stopped for coffee before heading up Highway 50 to our destination. Along the way, we stopped at the little Bridal Veil Falls on the rights side of the highway. It still had a good amount of water flowing through it.

“…The 150 foot waterfall pours down on massive polished granite boulders… The fall is on Esmeralda Creek, and flows into a large picturesque pool, dotted with boulders around the border. The creek and falls lie along the Mormon Immigrant Trail, and the Pony Express Trail…”

As you face the falls, there’s a seep that runs along the parking area and the highway to the right, where there was the majority of the plant life today, including alumroot, columbine, sweetclover, and Seep Monkeyflower (the first of four monkeyflowers we saw for the day).

To the left of the falls is a steep cliff face and boulders, and on the ground to the left of that was a collection of Yellow-Faced Bumblebees flying low over and crawling on the ground. Roxanne and I surmised they were “puddling”, collecting water and minerals for themselves and/or for their hive from the moss and rock faces.

“…Like honey bees, B. vosnesenskii are eusocial, colony dwelling bees. Mated queens emerge in early Spring to scout suitable nesting sites, often setting up shop in abandoned rodent dens or other dry hollows in the ground. The queen will raise the first generation of workers, taking care of all the foraging, incubating and tending to the young. Once a workforce has matured, the queen’s function becomes solely reproductive. Mature colonies range from 200-300 individuals…” Bee and Bloom

“…This bee species prefers a select set of genera for foraging purposes. These include: Lupinus, Cirsium, Eriogonum, Phacelia, Clarkia, and Ericameria…” Wikiwand

The cliff face, next to where the bees were, was unusually dry, so the lichen (especially the Dog Pelt and Emery Rock Tripe) which usually clings to it were all desiccated. Rox and I know that some of the adjoining cliff was significantly altered during the torrential spring rains which cause mud- and boulder-slides, and we wondered if there has also been alterations to the water flow at the top of the cliff which in turn affected the waterfall. Where the rocks had formerly gotten a regular supply of splash from the water fall to keep them moist, that splash no linger exists [even though the flow of the waterfall is still healthy]. The loss of the spray also impacted a lot of different plant species which may or may not return. It will be interesting to see how this spot changes with the seasons now.

We then continued up Highway 50 and stopped briefly at a spot where we could see the South Fork of the American River. There were pink and white Sweet Peas, Yellow Salsify, Black Oaks, and Mountain Phacelia, among other plants. The phacelia was the first of three different kinds of phacelia we saw today.

We were then on the road again and found the turn out for Wrights Lake Road, I was very excited to see what we might see.

“…The best wildflower viewing is along the first section of trail between the Lyons Creek Trailhead and the junction with Bloodsucker Lake Trail. Peak flowering time is late June through July. The many wildflowers include alpine lily, Sierra larkspur, western columbine, Leichtlin’s mariposa lily, yampah, spiraea, and bigleaf lupine. At the lakes, enjoy red mountain heather and labrador tea…” — US Forest Service

Continuing up Wrights Lake Road, we came to an area where we could see a lot of Deerweed, buckwheat, and other plants, so Rox pulled the car over and we started looking around, taking photos. I immediately set eyes on what, at a distance, looked like a long collection of bright yellow seeds hanging from the side of the flowering head of some kind of heavy grass species. [Can you tell that botany is NOT my specialty? Hah!]

As I got closer, I was surprised to find that I was looking at the under side of an enormous yellow caterpillar, a kind of hornworm. A quick check at iNaturalist proved it was the caterpillar of the White-lined Sphinx Moth, Hyles lineata. This particular moth goes through about 4 instars before pupating (in the ground). In the first photo below, you can see three of the instars on one plant. The largest caterpillar we found was about 4 or 5 inches long!

“…Larvae can occasionally occur in tremendous numbers and can move in hordes in search of food, consuming entire plants and covering roadways in slick masses. Such explosive outbreaks, especially common in the dry country of the west, provide moths that emigrate to colonize more northern areas. There are normally at least two generations per year, with multiple generations in warmer climates…” — Wisconsin Horticulture

In the video below, you can see the 5th instar caterpillar wading through and ignoring the deerweed as it goes in search of buckwheat plants.

Also below, is a video of an adult White-Lined Sphinx Moth that I saw at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in 2017. The moths are very large; about the size of a hummingbird, but “fatter”.

“…The flight of sphinx moths is a marvel, for while hovering or accelerating the wings beat so fast that they emit a fluttering buzz — wingbeat frequencies are typically 41 cycles (up and down) per second. To achieve the rate of wingbeats required for hovering and agile flight, white-lined sphinx moths raise their body temperatures higher than that of humans (98.5 degrees); when evening air temperatures are in the range of 60 to 90 degrees, sphinx body temperatures are maintained between 104 and 108 degrees…” — University of Colorado

We were so fascinated by the caterpillars that it took a while before we actually started looking at the flowers and other plants in the area again. Here we found more monkeyflowers including the regular yellow Seep Monkeyflower and the tiny pink Brewer’s Monkeyflower

As we drove along, I was seeing a lot of plants on the roadside that I thought were Miner’s Lettuce gone to seed, so I didn’t pay too close attention to them. Then Rox mentioned that she had posted a photo of a plant like that to iNaturalist, thinking it was Miner’s Lettuce and someone pointed out that it was actually a jewelflower plant that was past its prime. Well, then you can be sure I was paying closer attention! Within seconds I found a plant that still had a few lingering flowers on it. Jewelflowers are (visually) one of my favorites, so I was very excited to find some so late in their season.

Among the insects and arachnids that we found along the way included grasshoppers, Bee-flies, Bristle flies, bugs, Stretch Spiders, a Wolf Spider carrying her spiderlings on her back, and a new-to-me metallic green beetle: Boreal Long-Lipped Tiger Beetle. It was at my feet and when I tried to get closer photos of it, it flew off.

And there were butterflies, too, of course along the road and on the trail. Most of them were very uncooperative, but I did manage to get a few photos, including some of the new-to-me Hoary Comma. I’ve seen those in books and always admired their sculpted wings, but I’d never seen one live before.

I guess, also along the insect line was the fact that we saw LOTS of galls on the manzanita trees created in reaction to the Manzanita Leafgall Aphid. There was such a variety in forms, though, that we wondered if maybe there were other various species or subspecies at work. We saw the typical red leaf curling galls, but also saw solitary green pouches and crowds of folds and pouches. Russo doesn’t mention that, but I understand that a lot of gall formers are not necessarily studied in that kind of depth.

“…The manzanita leaf-gall aphid, Tamalia coweni, is a widespread species native to the west coast of North America. This aphid engineers conspicuous red galls on manzanitas (Arctostaphylos species) that serve as domiciles and enriched food resources. As a specialist, Tamalia species are closely associated with rare and endangered manzanita host plants across California landscapes including isolated mountains in the Mojave desert, along coastal chaparral and woodlands, and inland mountains and valleys…” California Conservation Genomics Project

The other insect that made its presence abundantly obvious was the mosquito. We stopped where we saw other different flowers on either side of the road. A mini-waterfall and seeps were there, and the moisture meant the mosquitoes were thick. I had insect repellent, but had left it in the car when I went to look at the flowers, so I got chewed up by the skeeters before I could apply the repellant: on my arms, my hands, my face…and my back and chest right through my clothing! Yikes! In that area, though, we found a lot a lot of new-to-me wildflowers.

Among the flowers we saw were Mountain Bluebells, gooseberries, several kinds of monkeyflowers, irises, Big Deervetch, larkspur, and Jessica’s Stickweed. That was a brand new one for me. At first, I mistook it for Pacific Houndstongue, but the leaves were “wrong”.

As we continued up the road to the trailhead, we noticed that the flowers got smaller the higher we went. An interesting observation, it seemed most obvious in the size of the columbine flowers.

When we got to the Lyon’s Creek Trail trailhead, which is at about 6,700 feet in elevation, we parked by one of the large boulders that sit at the boundary of gravel parking lot, I was pleased by how well things were marked. [Sometimes, you go to a trail and you can barely find the trailhead, or walk the trail if it isn’t well maintained.] We sat on the boulders in the shade and ate our lunch. I was a “bad mommy” and had forgotten to bring Esteban’s water dish, so Rox suggested that I cut down one of our paper coffee cups and use that. It worked perfectly, and Esteban appreciated the extra hydration. Thanks, Roxanne!

When we got on the trail (which was well-marked and relatively easy to walk on for the first part of it, with little elevation gain), we found there was a LOT of larkspur, Five Spot, and Purple Honeysuckle [that was just starting to bloom], along with some Pretty Face, buttercups, and lots of Mariposa Lilies. The Corn Lilies weren’t in bloom yet. Both sides of the trail were lines with Lodgepole Pines.

I could only walk the trail for a short while before the elevation and summer heat got to me, and I needed to go back to the car. I sat with the A/C blowing on me and Esteban while Roxanne completed more of the trail. She stopped when the ground got too muddy and slippery (nearer to the creek). I’d like to go back to this location earlier in the morning and/or on a cooler day when I could get further along the trail, I want to see a Bog Orchid!

Roxanne returning to the car from the trail

We could hear birds along the way, including Steller’s Jays, but I wasn’t able to get any kind of photos of them. I saw, for example, a Green-Tailed Towhee singing next to the car, but as soon as I lifted my camera to get a photo of him, he flew off. So frustrating. That was a lifer bird for me!

Roxanne brought me samples of lichen and fungi she found on our trip, so there was a lot of diversity in species to see: lichen, plants, trees, birds, insects and spiders, fungi…

On the way back to highway, we noticed some of the collections of giant boulders on the side and top of some of the hillsides. Amazing.

Giant clusters of boulders on the hills along Wrights Creek Road.

We took a short “aside” drive up of part of Ice House Road, but didn’t see much of anything, so we turned around and went back to the highway. After a brief stop for some cool drinks, we got back to the house by around 4:30 PM. That was a long — but very fruitful — day for all of us. Esteban did very well for the whole trip, I was very proud of him.

This was hike #38 of my #52hikechallenge for the year.