Photos by Sonja, captions by Andy.
On a previous hike, we finally found a good trailhead for San Bruno Mountain (here), one that starts off with a lot of wildflowers (in the spring) and connects to the summit ridge. We don’t always hike all the way up, but this time we did.
Once past the planted eucalyptus, the grasses and wildflowers cover the lower slopes:
I know we’ve seen mallow elsewhere, but I think this is the flower that characterizes San Bruno Mountain to me, at least the southern slopes. Maybe it’s just because it seems Leilani is always wearing something of the same color (see below):
There are no huge carpets of flowers, but in some places, the densities are nothing to sneeze at (unless you have hay fever of course :-)
Not too far above the eucalyptus is the first rock outcropping. This one has graffiti, but it’s Leilani’s favorite to climb (which she does really well up AND down):
Lupine are the most abundant flowers here:
Which is why this area is prime habitat for the endangered Mission Blue butterfly. Were were lucky to see several and get a good picture of this one :
We did not see–or perhaps recognize–the rarer San Bruno Elfin butterfly, named after San Bruno mountain. From that Wikipedia link, they tend to live on the other side of the mountain. Who knew that “San Francisco is notorious in international lepidopterist circles for its long list of disappearing butterflies.” [link]
A bit further up, at the top of the lower slopes are some unspoiled rocks to sit on and look at flowers and the view of the city. Poor California poppies, they’re so beautifully orange and yet so ubiquitous that we hardly mention them anymore:
Then there is a flat part before the trail goes up steeply on the upper slopes:
On the upper slopes, there is more scrub vegetation and a big variety of other flowers, though less density.
The Indian Paintbrush always impresses:
This one we call by it’s German name, Spitzwegerich, because we don’t know it in English. Andy also uses it to “shoot” the flower at people, a skill he learned in France as a kid:
The sage is impressive (and well photographed, if I may say so):
A neat sort of mauve fiddleneck:
And an unknown flower from a plant that looks like some sort of wild gourd:
But the tiny scarlet pimpernel is my favorite:
At the very top, there are views of SF (not pictured, I guess we’ve seen it before) and trail junctions to go east or west on the ridge (and perhaps down to the north, we need to explore some more):
There is also some sort of bush flowering, it has pointy leaves like a holly, but I don’t think it is one. It’s just one of those drab shrubs that blends in with the rest all year until it puts out some bright flowers in the spring:
This wasn’t meant as a sequence (and I think the pictures were taken in different places) but there were less flowers to photograph near the top, so we took a picture of the next most colorful thing, Leilani hiking down:
PS: watching the planes coming and going to SFO can either be an added feature or nuisance of this hike, depending on how you feel. However, I was surprised to read this: “On June 28, 1998, United Airlines Flight 863, a Boeing 747-400, cleared nearby San Bruno Mountain by only 100 feet after a pilot erred in correcting for a failed engine during takeoff. The plane was en-route to Sydney, Australia.” [link]
