Hiked Monday, June 3. Echo Mountain has been my "ole standby" hike, because it's so conveniently located to my house, and offers a nice trip back in time, once you get up to the old White City at the top. Trailhead directions are posted on previous blogs about this hike, and finding directions will be the least of your probems.
Something weird happened when I posted these pictures. They're coming out too large. But if you click on the picture, you get a properly-scaled view.
So I was surprised to discover that I hadn't been up there all year. Didn't find that out until I started writing the blog.
At the start of the hike, I was thinking of heading to Sunset Ridge, just because I thought I had been up to Echo Mountain so many times, and this would give it a little variety.,
However, with the many wildflowers I had to photograph, my progress was slow. I soon determined that getting to Echo Mountain was all I'd have time for this night.
During the first mile, scarlet larkspur seemed to be everywhere. I took picture after picture. It, along with the Indian Pink, and the California fuschia, gave me my fill of pretty red flowers.
The larkspur was densest in the first mile of trail. Two weeks later (five days before I wrote these words) I last hiked the area, again. By that time, the densest scarlet larkspur were in the last 1.5 miles or so of trail.
Somewhat ironically, since my Burbank Peak hike, when I saw those pretty mariposa lily, I've since seen mariposa lily on practically every hike I've taken since.
There was also a small patch of desert poppy. They look similar to their relatives, the California poppy. But the connection between the stem and the flower is slightly different, and the desert variety is slightly more yellow rather than orange in bloom.
This being another after-work hike, I was again coming down in late twilight. I love summer evenings for hiking, that's for sure.
I've now got about a half-dozen more hikes to finish blogging. The good news is, I've uploaded pictures for about four of them tonight. I'll probably wind up making much briefer than usual blog write-ups, just so I can get the hikes posted.
I also hope to get a few more hikes in this weekend. The stifling heat may prove problematic, however.
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