North Table Mountain

On March 22nd, we headed out for a second wildflower hike of the season. While driving through the Feather River Canyon, we made a quick stop across the river from Jackass Falls. Jackass Creek was flowing pretty well and the upper falls looked very nice from the highway. After a while, we turned onto Cherokee Road just outside of Oroville. This narrow, winding road passes by some beautiful ranches and homes on the way to the North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve trailhead. By 9:30a the parking lot was almost completely full with some cars parked off the side of the road. On Saturdays in spring there are guided wildflower tours that begin at 10a (there's another in the afternoon) and it appeared that one of those groups was gathering when we arrived. After getting our things together and Penny out of the car we headed out on our third walk on North Table Mountain (topo here). It had been three years since we were here last but this trip would turn out to be the best for wildflowers. The goldfields, yellow carpet, blue dicks, and sky lupine showed themselves first and we stopped at a few places just past the trailhead to get closer looks. It didn't take long to come upon some thick patches of sky lupine with the other flowers sprinkled in. As you move away from the trailhead, everyone gets more spread out and its easier to lose yourself in the scenery. While walking further to the northwest we spotted some short whitetip clover and narrow leaved owl's clover. Shortly after these we came across some impressive patches of sky lupine with some poppies mixed in. When sky lupine grows in these thick patches, their fragrance fills the air and you can be sure to find lots of honeybees buzzing around, making sure to visit as many of the flowers as possible.

Walking between the many small drainages on the mountain, you get some fantastic views (above) of the landscape, and on this day we were afforded spectacular views of the hills painted with innumerable flowers (mostly sky lupine, goldfields, and yellow carpet) accompanied by the occasional cow and tree. Purple owl's clover and Kellogg's monkeyflower were spotted next mixed in with the lupine and poppy. These monkeyflowers are one of Z's favorite Sierran wildflower. They are tiny and a vibrant magenta with yellow mouths and tongues spotted with purple. On some of the volcanic rocky outcrops we came across shieldleaf. We were hoping to see bitterroot as well but were not so fortunate in that search. Climbing up out of another small drainage we came across another fabulous view of the painted hills surrounding the drainage above Ravine Falls. As we approached Ravine and Ravine Twin Falls we found a great area full of poppies surrounding the volcanic rocks (above-left) accompanied by the ever-present sky lupine with some blue dicks and owl's clover. We spent some time taking some pics of the poppies contrasted from the dark black rocks, sky lupine, and green vegetation. Here, we also spotted bird's eye gilia mixed in with everything else. A few minutes after arriving, a group left the top of Ravine Falls which let us get a good pic with just the scenery.

As we followed a use-trail around the fingers north of Ravine Falls we came across another absolutely gorgeous view of carpets of lupine and poppies surrounding the rocks on the coming hillside as well with a few trees sprinkled in (right). We stopped just to watch the wind blow all of the flowers and take in the fresh scent for a moment. On our way west along the finger between Ravine Falls Canyon and Coal Canyon to get to Lower Ravine Falls we came across a Monarch butterfly feeding on a blue dicks. We found the use-trail leading to Lower Ravine Falls near the brink of Coal Canyon and followed it southwest down through the trees. You can see part of this trail on aerial photographs of the area if you look closely and finding it was pretty easy as long as you follow the edge of Coal Canyon and don't get sucked into one of the many fingers heading south into Ravine Falls Canyon. We saw lots of dove's foot geranium and white nemophila. Immediately above Lower Ravine Falls the trail follows the northern edge of a small meadow. Lower Ravine Falls is a decent-sized waterfall, however the best thing it has going for it is that hardly anyone knows about and/or is willing to walk to it. This means that you are all but guaranteed to be by yourself down here. Not that you can't get away from people on North Table Mountain, but this spot is great. There was a giant caterpillar phacelia plant with a few bees feeding on it just north of the waterfall and we found a California Newt and a treefrog (either a Pacific or Sierran) hanging out in the creek just above the waterfall. The treefrog made his presence known by croaking loudly. Unfortunately, you also need to be on the lookout for poison oak (we only saw it on the south side of the creek) and ticks.

All-in-all, our ~5.3 mile trek on North Table Mountain was fantastic. The colors, scents, weather, and company were perfect. In Z's mind, this day put North Table Mountain ahead of Sagehen Creek and Hite Cove for wildflower hikes. With no limits on where you can go and how to get there, the numerous waterfalls, and the fabulous wildflower displays in spring it is hard to argue with him. However, B still gives a slight edge to Sagehen Creek because of its diversity and no worries of poison oak or ticks (although, these are only in the lower parts of the mountain and not on top). We may have to go to Sagehen Creek again this year to give it a recent comparison with North Table Mountain. Hopefully our timing will be perfect for the camas lily display.