WINTER CREEK/MT. ZION TRAILS, SAN GABRIEL MTS
JANUARY 2009 PAGE ONE
Photographs by Michael Charters




It had been years since I was last over the Mt. Zion Trail and I had forgotten what a pleasant hike it is. Roughly a ten-mile loop, it begins at Chantry Flats, drops down the paved road to the beginning of the Sturtevant Trail, then winds up past the top of Sturtevant Falls, continues past Cascade Picnic Area and Spruce Grove Campground, to Sturtevant Camp, then in 1/8 mile the Mt. Zion Trail diverges from the main trail which continues on to Mt. Wilson. The Mt. Zion Trail crosses a saddle and then drops to a junction of the Winter Creek Trail, at which you have a choice of the lower trail (2 miles to Chantry Flats) or the upper trail (3 miles). Like many of the front range canyons, there are many invasive species resulting from a century of hikers and the cabins that dot the lower watercourses. An asterisk next to the common name indicates a non-native species.


 
 
Tree tobacco *
Nicotiana glauca
Solanaceae
 
 
White nightshade
Solanum douglasii
Solanaceae
Common beggar-ticks *
Bidens pilosa var. pilosa
Asteraceae
Mulefat
Baccharis salicifolia ssp. salicifolia
Asteraceae
Redstem filaree *
Erodium cicutarium
Geraniaceae

 
Wild cucumber
Marah macrocarpus var. macrocarpus
Cucurbitaceae

 
 
California polypody
Polypodium californicum
Polypodiaceae
 
 
 
 
Spanish broom *
Spartium junceum
Fabaceae
Canyon sweet pea
Lathyrus vestitus var. vestitus
Fabaceae
 
 

 
Sugarbush
Rhus ovata
Anacardiaceae

   
Hillside gooseberry
Ribes californicum var. hesperium
Grossulariaceae
 
Bladder senna *
Colutea arborescens
Fabaceae

 
California buckwheat
Eriogonum fasciculatum var. foliolosum
Polygonaceae

   
California bay
Umbellularia californica
Lauraceae
 
Sweet-cicely
Osmorhiza brachypoda
Apiaceae

 
 
cf. Low canyon dudleya
Dudleya cymosa ssp. pumila
Crassulaceae

 
 
Coastal wood fern
Dryopteris arguta
Dryopteridaceae
Coastal wood fern
Dryopteris arguta
Dryopteridaceae
Chickweed *
Stellaria media
Caryophyllaceae
Annual moonwort *
Lunaria annua
Brassicaceae


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INDEX
CALFLORA.NET PAGE TWO
OF TWO
CALIFORNIA PLANT NAMES: LATIN AND GREEK MEANINGS AND DERIVATIONS

Copyright © 2009 by Michael L. Charters.
The photographs contained on these web pages may not be reproduced without the express consent of the author.
Comments and/or questions may be addressed to: mmlcharters[at]gmail.com.