This gallery contains photos from several visits to the Mt. Hillyer area and along the Santa Clara Divide Road which goes off of the Angeles Crest Highway at mile marker 52.80 not far from Chilao. The trail to Mt. Hillyer is an easy one through bouldery and pine-treed terrain once traversed by bandits and horse thieves to a summit at 6,162' with beautiful views of the east San Gabriel Mts and especially the desert side. An article by John McKinney in the Los Angeles Times of January 28, 1989 says: "During the early 1870s, stagecoach robber/horse-and-cattle thief Tiburcio Vasquez and his gang hid out in the Chilao country. The stolen horses were pastured in secluded grassland we now call Horse Flats. Vasquez, last of a generation of bandits to operate out of the Southern California backcountry, was captured in 1874." Another place named for him is Vasquez Rocks. Mt. Hillyer is named for Mary Hillyer, a popular clerk who worked for the Forest Service in the 1920s. Anyone who is looking at this gallery should be aware that the identifications presented here were arrived at during the early part of my botanizing career and may be susceptible of error.

Palmer's monkeyflower
Erythranthe palmeri
Phrymaceae
[Named for Edward Palmer, 1829-1911]

Possibly Nevada onion ?
Allium nevadense
Alliaceae

Low pussytoes
Antennaria dimorpha
Asteraceae

Smooth boisduvalia
Epilobium campestre
Onagraceae

Clustered blazing star
Mentzelia congesta
Loasaceae
[Named for Christian Mentzel, 1622-1701]