True Nature Stories: Table Mountain

Wildflowers at North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve
(click images to view larger)

I was introduced to the spring wildflowers of Table Mountain when I briefly lived in Sonora in the late '80s, but of course that's a different Table Mountain. In part because I'm not fond of sharing my trails with cows and lots of people, I never got around to visiting the North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve near Chico until yesterday. It was well worth the trip despite my reservations, though, and I look forward to visiting again in the coming years.

Not knowing what to expect, I packed for an overnight trip. Since I was setting my alarm for 2 a.m. in order to arrive by sunrise I slept in the living room to avoid waking up my wife, who had to go to work in the morning. I actually woke up 15 minutes before the alarm and got on the road before 3 a.m. I let Google Maps guide me through the darkness, and that worked really well until I was confronted by confusing street signs at intersections along Cherokee Road, the final approach to the Reserve. I'd gotten so used to the voice commands that I didn't even think to look at the map on the phone, and I found it hard to tell at a couple of intersections, especially in the dark, which way to go.

As I drove past a "lake" (the Thermalito Diversion Pool) I saw the beautiful, golden shape of a crescent moon rising over the water. I pulled over but couldn't find a good photo opportunity until I got back in the car and drove up and out of the woods. It was still well before sunrise (on what would turn out to be a chilly, overcast, and windy day) when I pulled over again to photograph the moon with an oak tree silhouette. Even in the scant predawn light I could tell I was surrounded by wildflowers.

There was one other car in the Reserve parking lot when I arrived, and two more had come by the time I'd changed into hiking shoes and got on the trail. When I returned around noon, the lot was packed to overflowing. And this was a Monday, with what I would guess is a fairly ordinary bloom (not a "superbloom").

Although I had a hiking map, it did me no good when faced with the actual place. I figured it would be easy to just follow the trail at such a heavily used location, but what appeared to be the main trail soon led me past signs indicating the Reserve boundary. It was perplexing because the wildflowers were better on the wrong side of the boundary.

I waited for the two guys hiking behind me to catch up, but they had never been there before either. Thankfully, one of them had smartly saved directions on his phone and said we should hike along the fence line, so off we went. The hiking instructions I'd read at home said most people hiked along the fence line, but the cognoscenti took a shortcut. I noticed the shortcut as soon as we walked past it at the other end. The way to find the beginning of the shortcut is to face the big sign at the trailhead that tells you to have a Lands Pass: the shortcut takes off straight along your line of sight behind it.

We didn't encounter our first trail sign until we were eight-tenths of a mile into the Reserve , but from then on, the rest of the route to Phantom Falls was easy to follow.

A group of turkey vultures was perched in a tall snag next to the trail near Ravine Falls, but I didn't have a long lens with me and just enjoyed the view. I figured they'd been roosting there all night. As we approached, the vultures reluctantly flew off the tree one by one, and we soon encountered what the attraction was: a dead cow (alive with maggots) lay next to the trail.

There were lots of wildflowers along the first part of the hike, but few that drew me to photograph individual species. One exception was a low-lying scarlet-petaled monkey flower (Diplacus kelloggii). There were just a couple of them lying low to the ground the first time I saw them, but the next time they were on fairly tall plants, and out around Phantom Falls I found a large patch of them where I photographed a snoozing butterfly. I was glad I'd brought my flash for macro work since it was too windy for natural light.

As I roamed around I found plenty of wildflowers to photograph, and it was a joy to be out on such an interesting an unusual landscape. The main attraction for me was the Phantom Falls escarpment. As with anything else, the pictures don't do it justice. You can't stand right at the edge of a picture! I practically get vertigo just remembering it. I'd packed a sandwich and sat right next to the edge to eat it while yellow-rumped warblers flitted over the chasm next to me with ease, and a canyon wren trilled from the cliffs, its song a descending whistle that would have made an excellent accompaniment to something falling off a cliff.

I found another excellent wildflower patch after my early lunch, but the wind was only getting increasingly troublesome for flower photography, so I soon called it a day.

I hiked back to the car and drove out of the Reserve by heading north on Cherokee Road (having come in from the south), thinking I'd head east when I got to CA-70. Almost as soon as I turned onto the highway, though, a flashing sign warned that the road was closed nine miles ahead. I drove up a ways anyway but felt like the wildflowers weren't really happening yet in that direction, so I turned around and headed toward Snow Mountain, which still has quite a bit of snow on it. I set Google Maps for a little button of a town called Elk Creek near Stony Gorge Reservoir. From Elk Creek I navigated south and west until I reached Bear Valley Road.

I'd never been in that area before and was a little taken aback when Bear Valley Road ran out of pavement. I briefly thought about turning around in my low-clearance Mazda 3, but the scenery was so new and beautiful out in that valley, and I told myself I'd gone too far to turn back anyway. I stopped several times to make snapshots over barbed-wire fences of irresistible patches and fields of wildflowers. I encountered maybe two or three other motor vehicles on that long stretch, one of which was an ATV driven by a guy with at least two dogs onboard and a border collie running along behind it -- and all of them, dogs and human, seemed glad to be out on such a beautiful day.

When Bear Valley Road reached the Wilbur Springs turn-off I knew I was getting close to paved roads again, and I soon came to CA-20 near the intersection of CA-16, which is what I took to head south through the picturesque Capay Valley until it reached I-505. After gassing up in Winters I was home in time to catch most of World News Tonight and have dinner with my wife (who happily slept though my wee-hour departure).

Rising Crescent Moon and Oak Tree

Rolling Terrain with Wildflower Foreground

Landscape with Cattle

Kellogg's Monkey Flower

Early in the morning, a little bit of sunshine broke through the gathering clouds, painting the landscape with soft light.

Oaks in Morning Light with Darkening Western Sky

Monkey Flower Bouquet

Phantom Falls Overlook No. 1

Phantom Falls Overlook No. 2

Landscape of Rock and Flowers

Streamside Meadow Wildflowers

Butter 'n Eggs

Wildflower Canvas

Owl's Clover, Lupine, and Goldfields

Textured Landscape

Veined White Butterfly at Rest

Phantom Falls Escarpment from the Western Side

Having lunch on the edge, I was able to text this photo to my wife, thanks to excellent cell service near Phantom Falls.

I was eating my sandwich and almost didn't think to grab my camera in time to get a shot of this guy who was standing on the western side where I'd just been.