Live Oak Trail

If you live in Orange County and haven't taken a drive through Live Oak Trail, you're missing out. It starts on one end at Cook's Corner which is on El Toro Road on one side, Santiago Canyon Road on the other. (Santiago Canyon starts right by Irvine Park) On the other end of Live Oak Trail is Trabuco Canyon Road which turns into Plano Trabuco Drive and takes you right into Rancho Santa Margarita and the 241.


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With cross streets with names like "Hunca Munca" and "Honkey Dory", horse stables, grazing cows, beautiful wildflowers and over-arching oaks along the way, it's a fun Spring drive for the whole family.

O'Neill Regional Park is right along the way so you can stop by and take the kids up and around Edna Spaulding Trail. Parking is $3 on weekdays, $5 on weekends and you'll want to avoid hot days. The hike can get pretty miserable, but on a cool day in the Spring, it's wildflower heaven.

Coulter's Matilija Poppy (AKA The Fried Egg Flower)

California Everlasting - smells wonderful






















Golden Yarrow along the trail.





















And don't forget to stop by the Trabuco General Store on your way home. There's a lot to look around at...

and they have old fashioned sodas and cucumber chili popsicles! I didn't have the nerve to try it this time, but now I'm kind of wishing I had just to say I did.

So grab your kids and hurry on out before the wildflowers and chili pops are all gone!

Rancho Mission Viejo

More interesting finds from our ventures outdoors this week.

Today's pictures are from a hike we took up into the hills from the parking lot at Remington Senior Apartments, right by the fire station. There's a trail across from the fire station that heads down into the cover of some very, very large, climbable oak trees.




You'll see paths and hills carved into the trail by dirt-bikers. The kids love running up and down them.




The trail winds through the oaks then comes out into the sunshine for a bit of an uphill climb. One section is really steep, but gets you up to the ridge for some really beautiful views.






Here's what we saw...

Ground Pink



Lupine



Splendid Mariposa Lily as it looked on our way up the hill



The same lily as the sun was setting on the way down - it closed




Wishbone Bush



Wild Cucumber



Salamander - found this guy while digging with a stick through the fallen oak leaves in the shade. I thought it was an earth worm and was about to show it to my 2 year old when I noticed its head looked different and it had legs.



Horehound - I see this everywhere now. You can boil the leaves to make a sore throat remedy. You can also make horehound candy with it.



The next pictures are from earlier in the week at the tidepools in Laguna Beach.

Unidentified caterpillar on deerweed



I believe this is some kind of coralline algae - pretty



goose neck barnacles, they look like crab claws





And last but not least, a bit of a poem from our studies this week...

Mother-my-love, if you'll give me your hand,
And go where I ask you to wander,
I will lead you away to a beautiful land
The Dreamland that's waiting out yonder.

~from Child and Mother by Eugene Field

A Conspiracy at the Mudflats

My daughter pointed out that the water level was noticeably higher when we arrived at the Newport Mudflats on Thursday. It is one of the few remaining estuaries in California, and I had read that several times, but it wasn't until today that I actually learned what that really meant.



After some searching, I found a lab manual from Fullerton College discussing the ecology of this area and here are some interesting things it says about this area:

...an estuary is an embayment along the coast of an ocean, with a generally steady supply of freshwater washed down from rivers. An estuary is a sort of mixing zone where water from the sea and water from the land meet each other.

The water environments in Upper Newport Bay are always changing. For example, during a flood tide (when the tide is coming in), sea water pushes into the bay, raises the water level and salinity, and changes the water temperature. During ebb tide, sea water retreats, the water level and salinity are lowered, and water temperature changes again. Tides strongly influence activity in the estuary. Each day, the bay experiences two high tides and two low tides.

The zone where these two water resources meet and mix is called the Null Zone. It consists of brackish water — less salty than sea water, and more salty than freshwater.

You can read the rest of the manual here. So interesting to read after knowing it first.

There were many shorebirds - I recognized willets, there were probably sandpipers, dowitchers, and godwits as well.



And here is a 'conspiracy' of black skimmers - the only bird in the US with a bigger lower mandible than upper. They drag their lower bills through the water to catch small fish.





Mudsnails...




We found a bunch of these Bermuda Sorrel - aka Bermuda Buttercup, African Woodsorrel, Sourgrass by the head of the trail where we park. The kids love the sour taste of their stems.

On The Hills and In The Aquarium

Here are pictures from our trek up the hill last week...



a silvery blue



black mustard beginning to cover the hills



lupine (have you read Ms. Rumphius?)



morning glory (bindweed)



Here's what I found happened to our giant water bug last week. Can you see what happened? (Hint: It didn't have a full grown baby!)



I found these interesting looking creatures in our tadpole aquarium - they're planarians.




Who knew!?!

Early Wildflowers

Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous,
God hath written in those stars above;
But not less in the bright flowerets under us
Stands the revelation of his love.

~From "Flowers" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Monkeyflower



Indian Paintbrush



Blue Dicks



Bindweed with crab spider and what looks like a tick



unidenfitied yellow flowers - identified! These are fiddlnecks - don't know why I thought they weren't, they didn't seem as curled as the ones we saw in Chino Hills last year. Goes to show you what a year will do. I believe it's called "Momnesia" :)



unidentified white flowers - identified! These are popcorn flowers :)





Wild radish



Miner's lettuce



unidentified purple flower



bluedicks



bush sunflower (encelia)