Quincy to Grass Valley, Pert 2

 We saw so many interesting things on last Wednesday's trip to Grass Valley that I now realize it'll take three posts to keep the narrative reasonable.  I'll post all three sets of photos, then get back to the narrative later.  The whole time I'm working on this, I'm chomping at the bit to take a trip out to Butterfly Valley where I understand amazing things are already happening, such as a great blooming of Bear Grass.  Later.

I'm back.  It's Monday evening, and I took that trip to Butterfly Valley yesterday.  Saw some great stuff, including that great blooming of Bear Grass, but first I have to finish telling you about the Grass Valley trip.

When we descended on the South end of Gold Lake Road and got onto Highway 49, our first stop was a the big spring whose name I've forgotten.  I think it's named after an Italian settler in Sierra Valley, but will look that up later.  It was a wide and lush wet zone with lots of ferns and mosses, and what caught my eye first was a lone Crimson Columbine,  Aquilegia formosa.  The top photo shows more or less what it looked like from my driver's seat as I approached in the car.  The next photo was taken by my son Greg and it shows the lengths I go to to get a good shot.  I hope I didn't cause too much erosion.  If you click on this one you'll get a closer view in which you might be able to see the actual flower.

This is the photo I got from a couple of feet away from the Columbine.  Looking back toward the well-shaded waterfall, it made for a nice, dark background.

Just a little further down the road the slope at the roadside was very dry, decomposed granite where the Pussypaws was plentiful.  That's Calyptridium monospermum.  It was around 11:00 o'clock when we stopped here.  During hot afternoons, the individual flower-bearing stems tend to lie flat on the ground and look dead until the next cool morning during which they pop back up.  There must be some good physics lessons in that.

The California Thistle, Cirsium occidentale, was common from Sierra City onward, and it was hosting lots of caterpillars and ....

...sleeping Bumblebees.   Also common in these drier areas was Chicory, Cichorium intybus, which is a non-native.  If only I could be assured no herbicides were being sprayed, I'd harvest some Chicory roots from time to time.  Brings back memories of that really strong coffee in New Orleans.

One of the prettier flowers formerly known as Bordiaea is the Wild Hyacinth, Dichelostemma multiflorum.  I didn't pick this one; I am just holding it steady because it was a bit windy.

Another photo of Interior Rose, Rosa woodsii.  They're everywhere, and I'm always trying to get a better photo than the last one.

Onward to Part 3, mostly from Camptonville to North San Juan along Highway 49.