WINTER CREEK/MT. ZION TRAILS, SAN GABRIEL MTS
JANUARY 2009 PAGE ONE
Photographs by Michael Charters
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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. |
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Mulefat Baccharis salicifolia ssp. salicifolia Asteraceae |
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Redstem filaree * Erodium cicutarium Geraniaceae |
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Wild cucumber Marah macrocarpus var. macrocarpus Cucurbitaceae |
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Canyon sweet pea Lathyrus vestitus var. vestitus Fabaceae |
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Sugarbush Rhus ovata Anacardiaceae |
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Hillside gooseberry Ribes californicum var. hesperium Grossulariaceae |
Bladder senna *
Colutea arborescens Fabaceae |
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California buckwheat Eriogonum fasciculatum var. foliolosum Polygonaceae |
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California bay Umbellularia californica Lauraceae |
Sweet-cicely Osmorhiza brachypoda Apiaceae |
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Chickweed * Stellaria media Caryophyllaceae |
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Annual moonwort * Lunaria annua Brassicaceae |
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