Azalea State Natural Reserve

Map link.


I seem to have run out of steam once the short term goal of researching the nearly northernmost 100 miles of the California Coast Trail got sorted. I did finally manage to do a minor bit of volunteer work on May 1st. It was at the future home of the Little River Trail, which will pull the bicycles off the freeway and make hiking more reliable for that section of, yes, California Coastal Trail. But it's time to check on the azaleas again. I have been expecting there to be flowers, although not quite peak. It's been so long since the camera was out that the first thing I found was the battery was dead. Well, I have a better camera, but the dSLR was quite dead too. The extra batteries weren't where they should be. Apparently I have the 16 year old Pentax in that bag too, but I didn't have to try it because I found the superzoom that replaced it. I loved that little camera. I don't remember it being quite so little. It's batteries were dead too, but it runs on AA and I had a pair of lithium AA with no purpose to feed it. Timmy knocked it off the table once, which has left it hard to turn on. Oh, and for a new twist it loses the time when I turn it off. It could still remember the settings from 5 years ago. Maybe it's because the lithium batteries, which weren't a thing when it was made, are a higher voltage. I decided to encourage it to stay on. It's pretty good with batteries.

Now there's lots of cars in the parking lot. There's a couple more on the other side, too. And the bush on the other side of the road is having a peak moment.

It looks like everyone who knows about the azalea reserve also knows when to come because there were lots of people in the lot and lots on the trails. It probably doesn't hurt that for a week until late yesterday, it has been dreary and grey. I would have been by earlier myself. The bright sunshine marks a change of weather that might make a mess of other inland plans, but it sure works for today. I turned to take the lower loop clockwise and quickly found more azaleas.

Trail heading the other way. Those bits of light pink on the left are more azaleas.

The azaleas. There's still a lot of buds getting ready to open. There's a few flowers falling away as well.

I still wanted to record the other flowers even though the stars of the place have finally made their showing.

The thimbleberry flowers were particularly large.

Close up on some of those azaleas.

The western azalea buds get to be so showy before they open that it's hard to tell there's only a few flowers among them here.

One single trillium is all that remains and that has a bit of seed forming.

There's a whole lot of potential showing up there, but only a few flowers.

One bush that's pretty much at peak flower and low enough for a good look.

Just the one branch of this lighter bush is hitting peak.

I crossed the road to see what was on the other side. I met a few people on the short lower loop, but none on the slightly longer and harder upper loop. There aren't quite as many azaleas, but still plenty. I got a little wrapped up in what had become of the many twinberry honeysuckle, which clearly weren't yet at their peak when I came through a month before. Then I discovered something new.

The underside of a knee high oxeye daisy.

Some of the weird shapes that the twinberry honeysuckle takes on the way to fruiting.

The azaleas aren't the only green, but there will be more flowers coming to this corridor.

One puff of flowers (and slightly hidden pollinator) of the Pacific ninebark. Is it some kind of berry? It's in the rose family.

More of the ninebark, which reaches a bit overhead like most everything else nearby.

The twinberry honeysuckle still has a couple flowers on it, but mostly has strange forms as the ovaries enlarge and ripen with a few more than some showing off the pair of berries at the end.

The Steller's jay was quite disappointed I was holding no sandwiches to steal. There are many more azalea buds behind it.

I think I missed the osoberry flowers entirely.

There's just a little bit of salal.

Moving into the forest, the flowers mostly dwell down near the ground. Candy flowers and forget-me-nots and little daisies and star flowers will probably be steady for a while. I was surprised to find a red columbine. They seem to stick to places where there's a good chance of some underground water, but it is distant from the now dry stream.

Candy flowers among leaves that suggest there's still some more little white flowers to come.

Some largeflower fairybells dangling near knee high.

The old laurels get quite a bit of love judging by the strong path all around them.

The wild strawberries are much smaller than the beach strawberries.

A few western starflowers are out, this one beside the poison oak.

I came upon more columbine on the way out of the forest and managed a better picture of it.

There are other tall, flower covered bushes. The blueblossom ceanothus stands quite tall with loads of blue puffs.

The poison oak is very much in bloom now, too.

When I got back to the parking area, I took another round on the small, flat loop just north of it that seems to go through the densest portion of azaleas. They are probably still less than half of the shrubbery, but they are well represented there.

Trail north from the parking lot is lined with tall shrubs, many of which have pink blooms.

Still a few flowers and a lot of buds. All those little red spots will erupt into big bunches of flowers soon.

*photo album*




©2021 Valerie Norton
Written 19 May 2021