Trip three to the Idyllwild area in the San Jacinto mountains, was scheduled in the middle of a series of storms and I opted not to deal with the rain and possible snow. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it had been a hard, busy week, and I was not feeling all that great. Secondly (let's get Freudian, or is it Jungian?) when I was but a wee thing of maybe four summers, maybe three, my family took a drive up to Idyllwild, whereupon it commenced to snow. This is back in the days before radial tires, and we did not have chains for the car, nor snow tires. I have vivid memories of my dad driving the family Ford down a twisty mountain road in the blizzard, at what must have been 10 miles per hour or less - and vivid memories of the sense of fear in the air within that car. I was crying. My mom got in the back seat with me and comforted me by telling me that daddy has lots of experience driving in snow. Somehow that didn't comfort me much, though - it only validated my own fear, since someone with experience who is nevertheless afraid, must have good reason to be afraid!
On two different occasions I attempted to go to Idyllwild on my own, to find what my fellow students found. The first attempt ended up short of the planned destination, but was nevertheless a wonderful and productive outing. I actually made it to Idyllwild on my second try - that trip was memorable in many ways.
At Idyllwild I saw many leaves on the ground that appeared to be Black Oak but I think that those trees had been cut down. I saw one tree that was probably Black Oak, but being a deciduous tree, and it being early in the year, the tree had no leaves or catkins, and so I didnt photograph it. I also only found one White Fir. It was half dead and I skipped it in hopes of finding a better specimen - but I never did. I was able to photograph both Black Oak and White Fir on the Palomar trip.
The photos in the plant list are my own photos, but the picture below is of the those who, braver than I, went to Idyllwild in the rain and the snow.
Jeff took a photo of some of the bedrock mortars in the area. More information on the history of the Mount San Jacinto area can be found in the park brochure.
Arctostaphylos pringlei drupacea
Last update 04/05/07
Copyright © Jeanne Lepowsky 2004