Vasquez Rocks Natural Area is a 932-acre park located in the Sierra Pelona or Liebre Mountains in northern Los Angeles County, California, near the town of Agua Dulce and approximately 25 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Known for its dramatic tilted sandstone formations, the result of sedimentary layering and later tectonic uplift resulting from the collision of the North American and Pacific tectonic plates approximately 25 million years ago, it has long been a popular filming location for movies and television programs most notably Star Trek, Ben-Hur, Blazing Saddles, Planet of the Apes and numerous others, and for hiking, horseback riding, and picnicking. In 1874, Tiburcio Vásquez, one of California's most notorious Mexican bandidos, used these rocks to elude capture by law enforcement. His name has since been associated with this geologic feature. The ecology of the park is characteristic of the California montane chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. The ecology of the park is characteristic of the California montane chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, primarily covered in short grasses, scrub oak trees, California junipers, yucca, and other chaparral shrubs such as sagebrush and buckwheat. And needless to say a great many beautiful wildflowers. The Pacific Crest Trail passes through Vasquez Rocks Natural Area and is one of several trails that crisscross the area. This area was part of the ancestral home of a people known as the Tatavium who through a series of historical and legal actions eventually lost all their ownership of the land. Vasquez Rocks Natural Area and Nature Center is owned and managed by Los Angeles County, specifically through the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, and the first parcels of land were aquired in 1971. I was assisted with creating this gallery by the flora list of Vasquez Rocks compiled by Mickey Long and Ian Swift, and the iNaturalist confirmed species list. As always an asterisk next to the common name indicates a non-native taxon.

Black sage
Salvia mellifera
Lamiaceae

Goldback fern
Pentagramma triangularis
Pteridaceae

Coffee fern
Pellaea andromedifolia
Pteridaceae

Bladderpod
Peritoma arborea var. arborea
Cleomaceae

California goldfields
Lasthenia californica ssp. californica
Asteraceae

Winged pectocarya
Pectocarya penicillata
Boraginaeae

Slender wild oats *
Avena barbata
Poaceae

Globe gilia
Gilia capitata ssp. abrotanifolia
Polemoniaceae