Carrizo Plain & Soda Lake

(March 5th, 2005)


carrizo1.jpg - 37448 Bytes

The photographs on this page were provided by local hiking enthusiast, Drew. He paid a memorable visit to Carrizo Plain in March 2005 during the wildflower season.


carrizo4.jpg - 58484 Bytes

Driving towards the south-east entrance to Carrizo Plain (and the sign pictured above). You turn off Hwy 33 / Hwy 166 about half way between Cuyama and Maricopa (sign posted).


carrizo5.jpg - 51627 Bytes

Looking back towards Hwy 33 / Hwy 166.


carrizo6.jpg - 58661 Bytes

A Vernal Pool. This is a seasonal water hole or pond with a regular wet / dry cycle supporting a variety of plant and animal species adapted to this type of special environment.


carrizo7.jpg - 43937 Bytes

I understand most of the purple flowers on these hills are a non-native cattle feed called Erodium cicutarium, or Red Stemmed Fillaree.


carrizo8.jpg - 75545 Bytes

Wildflowers abound.....


carrizo9.jpg - 145908 Bytes

I believe these are Coreopsis bigelovii or Tickseed.


carrizo10.jpg - 68241 Bytes


carrizo11.jpg - 159886 Bytes

The Yellow flowers are Lasthenia species or Goldfields (at least 7 different species can be found on the Carrizo Plain). The purple flowers are Erodium cicutarium or Red Stemmed Fillaree (the cattle feed mentioned earlier).


carrizo12.jpg - 165298 Bytes

Phacelia ciliata or Great Valley Phacelia.


carrizo13.jpg - 89938 Bytes


Closer shot of Phacelia ciliata or Great Valley Phacelia.


carrizo14.jpg - 149554 Bytes

The orange flowers are Amsinckia menziesii var. menziesii or Menzies' Fiddleneck. The purple flowers are Phacelia tanacetifolia or Lacy Phacelia.


carrizo15.jpg - 133311 Bytes

More Amsinckia menziesii var. menziesii or Menzies' Fiddleneck. Also known as Amzinkia. The cattle can't eat it, so it spreads quickly.


carrizo16.jpg - 49601 Bytes

The view from the top of a volcanic cinder cone. It is difficult to appreciate the scale of things in an area like this.


carrizo17.jpg - 131995 Bytes

Lichen growing on rocks on top of the cinder cone.


carrizo18.jpg - 74988 Bytes

Wild onions growing on the side of the cinder cone. They are commonly called Blue Dicks (Dichlostemma capitata).


carrizo19.jpg - 80672 Bytes

They actually smell like onions.


carrizo20.jpg - 104350 Bytes

More Blue Dicks.


carrizo21.jpg - 134838 Bytes

California Poppies, our official State Flower. Funnily enough, most store-bought poppy seeds are grown in Oregon these days. But these "genuine" local ones have a brighter orange color.


carrizo22.jpg - 84926 Bytes

California Poppy seen closer up.


carrizo23.jpg - 121280 Bytes

This is less common, Castilleja exserta or Owl's Clover.


carrizo24.jpg - 86434 Bytes

A passer by.


carrizo25.jpg - 18835 Bytes

This photo of Soda Lake was taken from a lookout on a small hill near the lake. It is hard to take good photographs of Soda Lake at ground level as it is a white expanse of 'nothingness'. The highest mountains in the distant background are Cerro Noroeste and Mount Pinos (Iwihinmu).


carrizo26.jpg - 58243 Bytes

Carpets of Tickseed and Menzies' Fiddleneck cover the hills above McKittrick.


carrizo27.jpg - 70845 Bytes

Yet another photo stop.


carrizo28.jpg - 55702 Bytes

Some parts of Carrizo are (or were) rural.


carrizo29.jpg - 51224 Bytes

The sun is starting to set over the plain.


carrizo30.jpg - 49062 Bytes

Time to get back to "civilization" after a very pleasant day of exploring and discovery.....




Aerial photo of displaced Wallace Creek in the Carrizo Plain National Monument.

Wallace Creek flows out of the Temblor Range on the North American Plate towards Soda Lake on the Pacific Plate. The creek can be seen flowing southwest in the upper right-hand quadrant in this photo. When the creek hits the San Andreas Fault, it is diverted northwest (left) along the fault trace. The Pacific Plate, in the foreground, has carried the creek bed with it as it moves northwest (left). The current offset of 425 feet started forming about 3,700 years ago. The most recent slippage caused by the 1857 earthquake added about 30 feet to this offset. Further to the left we see an earlier creek bed abandoned about 11,000 years ago due to the shifting of the plates.



line.gif - 3.0 K


Peter Gray
telephone: +1 (661) 242-1234

snowflaketrails@gmail.com

e-mail annimation.gif - 4.20 K



  top.jpg - 1.98 K  
back.jpg - 2.28 K   next.jpg - 2.20 K
  home.jpg - 2.13 K