A Backyard Volcano: Discovering Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve

Dates: April 20 and 30, 2015
Place: Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, Oakland, California
Coordinates: 37.847599, -122.199023
Length: about two miles
Level: easy

The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most fascinating places I know in terms of its natural history. I wasn't all that surprised, therefore, to find out that there is also a volcano in my relative neighborhood, even if an old and extinct one. The area of that volcano is no within the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, and it is a fine place for hiking, sightseeing and for a geological study.
There are quite a few trails in the relatively small area of this park, some even connect to other, nearby regional parks. The trail I post about here is a nice and easy, 2-miles loop that begins (and ends) at the main park entrance, off Skyline Blvd in Oakland.

My hike as captured by my GPS

I visited Sibley Volcanic twice last April: first on a prep hike and 10 days later with my chikas' Redwood 4H Hiking Project group. It was cloudy, misty and even drizzling on both days, so my photos are somewhat on the darker side. On the good side - there were very few other people in the park than I would have expected to see on a sunnier day. On the less so good side - parts of the trail were quite muddy and I needed to tread these carefully.
Leaving the staging area towards Round Top, the trail plunges immediately into the woods. The trees, many of which were budding deciduous, had their roots all across the trail.

A rooted trail

There were large patches of woodland strawberry in the forest undergrowth. Just green, mostly. A few blooming. And one, bright red, fruit.

Woodland Strawberry (Fragaria vesca).

I left it there. Stupid, I know, but I couldn't bring myself to destroy this perfection.
California coastal forests are home to the banana slug. It was very damp and I did see them out and about, although they weren't as yellow as I've seen them in other places.

Half a mile uphill the trail intersects with an asphalt road leading to a large water tank. It is worth going up to the water tank because behind it there is a very nice area of exposed lave flow that froze in time. The 4Hers enjoyed pointing out the round ebbs and eddies that remained in the rock's time capsule for millions of years.

After descending from the water tank I took a right turn to go around Gudde Ridge. It was green everywhere. Lush and wet.

And more strawberries on the ground.

Out of the woods and onto the ridge, the trees opened and I was ascending through a green, grassy hill. The grass was dotted with bright pink and purple. All various relatives of the lily. 

One of the most familiar: the tall and fancy Ithuriel's spear.

Ithuriel's Spear (Triteleia laxa)

Another one was this lovely and delicate brodiaea. Widely dispersed, these two dominated the color scene on the open grass.

Manyflower Brodiaea (Dichelostemma multiflorum)

Looking down, however, not poking through the tall grass, was the ever present blue-eyed grass.

Western Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium californium)

When I got to the divide I smelled the intense fragrance of chamomile. This smell came from the pineapple weed that I was trampling on the trail. This little plant is a non-native, invasive weed that is better plucked and immersed in boiling water. It does taste great as an infusion.

Pineapple Weed, (Matricaria discoidea). Not native weed. 

The trail continues north along the divide line and I went on, passing through the tree gate on my way to the quarry at Round Top.

There were more flowers along the trail. Not too many - the scenery was heavily dominated by green grasses - but enough to add some happy colors to my hike.

California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) 

It was clear that much of the bloom had finished already. Still, there were enough late bloomers to make me happy.

Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja affinis)

I went on toward Round Top. Where used to be a volcanic crater people made a quarry. An observation area by the quarry's edge allows a good view of its inside.

Round Top Quarry and the Mazzariello Labyrinth

Inside the old quarry: a small grove and a labyrinth. The grove - kind of expected. The labyrinth was an interesting surprise. Later I looked it up and found out that it was created in 1989 by Helena Mazzariello, a local resident, artist and a spiritualist. Since then it has become a kind of pilgrimage site for people who do their soul searching and meditation as they walk the labyrinth.  In its center there is a small cairn with prayer notes and small offerings.
While the labyrinth was unauthorized and clearly not part of the place's nature (as is the quarry itself!), it does, in a strange way, belong there, and has been unofficially sanctioned by the East Bay Regional Park District. It is now as much a part of this place as cultural sites of older ages.

California checkerbloom (Sidalcea malviflora)

There is a trail going down to the quarry, so of course I went down there.
After walking the labyrinth I took the time to look around. The grove of trees grows there and nowhere else on Round Top because, of course, there is more water down there. Water that collects at the bottom of the quarry in a little pond, thus creating a mini-wetland area with cattails and willows.

The quarry's bottom is also a wonderful place to rest and eat. But after that, it is the same trail going back up. On the way up, there is a nice view of Mount Diablo to the east.

Mt. Diablo

Among the trees there was one with bright red bark - the Pacific Madrone. Always standing out.

Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menziesii)

After the visit to the quarry and labyrinth I continued counterclockwise on Round Top loop trail, seeing more flowers along my path. 

Sky Lupine (Lupius nanus)

And not just flowers. The lush greenery has its beauty too. Even when imported.

Sweet Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). Not native. 

The geological story of Sibley Volcanic continues on the Volcanic Trail to a secant peak, but I elected instead to complete there shorter Round Top Loop Trail, heading back downhill on a wide gravel road.

That trail too was decorated with wildflowers, many of them immigrants from overseas.

Birdfoot Trefoil (Lotus comiculatus). Not Native.

That trail provides some very nice lookout points over the valley of Round Top Creek. There is a trail along the creek, leading all the way to Tilden Park. It is also the only trail in the park on which dogs are must be leashed.

As I was going back westward the vegetation got higher and thicker until eventually I found myself back in the woods.

Black Elderberry (Sambucus nigra)

So close to human population, there were quite a few plant cultivars around.

Silverleaf Cottonaster (Cotonaster pannosus)

Not to mention the eucalyptus trees that the trail eventually goes through.
After going back to the road leading to the water tank I chose to take the overview trail back to the parking lot. That trail goes by a lookout porch with large information signs. The view from there must have been nice when the lookout place was built. When I was there, however, the vegetation was so high that I couldn't see any view behind it.

Common Cowparsnip (Heracleum maximum)

I wasn't upset about it. The vegetation itself is interesting enough.

California Manroot (Marah fabaceus var. agrestis)

The Round Top loop doesn't take much time to walk. I took probably twice as much time as needed because I stopped near every flower I saw.

California Phacelia (Phacelia californica)

That trail proved to be a great success with my 4H group. The children found the labyrinth particularly entertaining, but also enjoyed the sights and the smells of the forest and the grassy hills. By the time I took the group there, there where even fewer flowers. But then, there was also one that wasn't there before: my favorite, the California wild rose.

California Wildrose (Rosa californica)

A Lucky Hike to Kings Creek Falls and Sifford Lake

Date: June 6, 2015
Place: Lassen Volcanic National Park, California
Coordinates: 40.460630, -121.459358
Length: 4.9 miles
Level: moderate

Kings Creek Falls is a well known and loved trail in Lassen Volcanic National Park. It is obvious to anyone driving through the park by the traffic jam at the trailhead :-) It is a well-loved trail and rightly so. Following the pretty Kings Creek all the way to the waterfall and back is the most straightforward route, the one that most people take. And it is very beautiful, particularly during the wildflowers bloom peak. There are more options, however. Here I share my hike down to the Falls and looping back via Bench Lake and one of the Sifford Lakes.

My hike to Kings Creek Falls, Bench Lake and Sifford Lake, labeled yellow on a USGS topo map.

June 6 would normally be too soon for the wildflowers bloom peak. This year, however, following a 4th drought year in a row and abnormally warm winter with very little snow pack, early June was high spring for Lassen Volcanic NP.
That meant flowers. Lots of flowers. All along the trail. Starting right by the trailhead.

Purple Fawnlily (Erythronium sp.)

Right away there is access to the creek. On the way out, however, I didn't stop for too long. I wanted to get to the falls as quickly as possible.

Small White Violet (Viola macloskeyi)

I was blessed with perfect hiking weather. It was warm, yet not too hot. Everything around me was green and lush. A few snow patches on the ground still, much fewer than should be so early in summer.

Kings Creek cuts through a meadow

Also very early for the season: the spring bloom. At that point I already knew that by the time I'd returned there with my group  at the end of July that bloom will be over.

Lomatium sp.

I was glad that I was there to enjoy it, though. No complaints there!

Western Serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.)

Less than half a mile into the trail the creek started cascading. The trail, however, remains fairly level as the creek dropped into a deep gorge.

So before long I was standing high above the water, gazing down to the whitewater in the deep gulch below me.

Not the falls yet, but an impressive cascading creek, cutting its way through the gray, volcanic rock and making its way down, down, down beyond the horizon.

The water flowing through Kings Creek eventually reach Lake Almanor, far in the misty horizon.

I spent some time at that viewpoint, looking around. A cute little squirrel observed me too.

The bloom scene only improved, with the manzanita shrubs carpeting the entire open face of the slope.

Manzanita (Arctostaphylus sp.)

Other flowers poked through the thick manzanita carpet. The indian paintbrush being the most noticeable.

Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja affinis)

As I remembered from my previous visits there, the trail continues directly along the creek, down to the falls. There is also the pack trail that meanders around the hill and descends on a milder slope. Normally, we would go down the direct trail, then loop back through the milder pack trail. This time I found that the direct trail has been closed because a part of it had collapsed. The only choice was to go down the longer pack trail. 

The pack trail down to Kings Creek Falls

To the color, there was added scent too: the sweet fragrance of blooming ceanothus filled the air as I made my way down.

Ceanothus sp.

Just looking across the thick layer of manzanita didn't reveal much. Looking closer at the ground, however, showed quite a few wildflowers peeking shyly from under the green shrubbery.

Hawksbeard (Crepis sp.)

Even when not too conspicuous, wildflowers have their way of attracting their pollinators.

Forest Clover (Trifolium breweri)

Even when almost hidden in the rock cracks.

Brewer's Monkeyflower (Mimulus breweri)

There were so many flowers there! Let's just say that I slowed down to almost a crawl on that trail going down to the falls.

Cinquefoil (Drymocallis sp.)

I break not only for flowers. New fern were rising from the moist ground, slowly unfurling their leaves in the air.

Unfurling Fern

Once down, almost at creek level, the trail crosses a small and very lush forest clearing. Grasses and rushes, interlaced with the boar leaves of mesh marigolds and the cone-like corn-lily spring sprouts covered the entire clearing.

There. too, were many blossoms. Most prevalent - the marsh marigold.

Marsh Marigold (Caltha leptosepalia)

But there was also a brighter color present: that of the Alpine shootingstar.

Alpine Shooting Star (Primula tetrandra)

The trail crossing the clearing was really muddy and I had to tread carefully on its edge, not to get deep into the muck and not to trample the vegetation. The sparkle of delicate threads attracted my attention, and I bent down to photograph a glistening spiderweb, woven over a hole in the ground.

After I crossed the clearing I joined with the direct trail that was blocked above me, and continued a few hundred yards down to the observation area of Kings Creek Falls.
Already from a distance I noticed some colors that didn't fit the natural scenery: bright-colored climbing rope and belts were tied to a large tree on the opposite side of the creek. At first I thought that maintenance work was being done there, but as I approached I saw that it was three young people doing tight-rope walking back and forth across the creek.

Tight-roping in nature

 I sat there and watched them for some time. As much as I admire that kind of physical activity, I wasn't all that happy not to have the falls without this in the foreground.

In previous visits there I used to scramble down a steep makeshift trail to the bottom of the falls. This time I was content to stay at the observation area above. But then nature intervened, gravity did its thing and the shader of my lens dislodged and fell all the way down to the creek. I probably should have called it a goner, but I could see the plastic ring shining back at me, lodged between a branch and a rock at the edge of the water. Leaving it there would have meant littering. I sighed and started the careful scramble down the rocks, all the way on my behind. (The pants survived).
After retrieving the shader I took a moment and photographed the falls from the bottom, this time with no humans in the frame.

Kings Creek Falls

It was easier going back up. I said goodbye to the sky athletes and continued down the trail. I didn't plan to take the group any further than the falls. That trail alone would have been plenty for a group of families with young children. I, on the other hand, had plenty of time on my hands on this prep hike, so I decided to widen my acquaintance of the area by adding the Sifford Lake loop to my personal hike.
As I descended further down the Kings Creek Trail I noticed a few patches of snow on the ground. When I returned to Lassen Volcanic NP a month and a half later, there was no snow anywhere except for a few small patches hight up Lassen Peak.

Snow patch downstream of Kings Creek Falls

About half a mile east of the falls the trail crosses Kings Creek and continues southeast. At that point I was all alone on the trail. I walked at an easy pace, enjoying the view that was familiar yet new to me at the same time.
Soon I was walking below rocky pillars that reminded me of ancient people leaning on each other. A dark gap between two of those pillars looked like a cave that mitt suit a bear, but as hard as I stared at it, with and without my binoculars, I could detect nothing there but darkness.

A slope of rubble was between those pillars and the trail, and at the bottom of the rubble, a patch of bright pink-floering shrubs: the purple mountainheath.

The trail was curved right in the midst of the mountainheath, allowing me to get a very close look at those pretty flowers.

Purple Mountainheath (Phyllodoce breweri)

In abundance were also the familiar forget-me-nots. Pretty and delicate, but not native to California.

Common Forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpiodes), non native.

A familiar smell from a bump in the damp caused my to stop and scrape the dirt off with my foot. An amanita! The only mushroom (save for bracket mushrooms that grow on dead trees) that I've seen in the entire hike!

The map indicated that my trail would take me to Bench Lake and I had planned to have my lunch break there. When I arrived at the lake's location I stood there gaping for a long minute at a parch-dry basin that used to be a forest pond.
The California Drought.

Bench Lake

But it was lunch time after all, so I sat there and ate quietly, and then I laid back and closed my eyes, hoping to get a few minutes' nap. I didn't fall asleep, so I reopened my eyes and stared at the pretty sky and practiced nephelococcygia. (That's finding shapes in the clouds - a fancy word I learned recently on one of those silly online quizzes).

Sky Kittens, playing

It was getting windy and the temperatures started to go down. Rested, I got back on my feet and went on with my hike. A young couple, both in skimpy clothes (but no goosebumps), and very little water, came upon me fast from behind. They had no map and asked me if I knew where there would be the turn to loop back to the trailhead. I didn't tell them what they had already figured out, that one shouldn't go hiking without proper preparation and enough water, but I do think it is important to emphasize it here. I did, however, pull out my map and showed them that the turn should be coming up a just a quarter mile away.  They thanked me and continued on at top speed. I lumbered heavily in their wake.

The open pine forest south of Kings Creek Falls

That turn, as it turned out, also leads to a lake that on my map was labeled as one of the Sifford lakes. Going to that lake would have meant another mile back and forth extension of my loop hike just to see that one lake. I had wanted to see that lake, but I after the disappointment of seeing Bench Lake dry I had second thoughts.
I debated with myself for a few seconds, and then I noticed a pretty, yellow composite growing near the trail leading to Sifford Lake, so I went to photograph it. Then, of course, I was already on my way to the lake.

California Groundsel (Senecio aronicoides)

And I was very glad I did, because the lake was full to the brim. Why this one full and the other dry? I have no clue. Perhaps the bottom of Sifford Lake is less porous? I truly don't know.

Sifford Lake

It is a very small lake. More like a pond. So, naturally, I walked all the way around it. On the other side of the lake, though, I made a stunning discovery: the lake is located near the edge of a sheer cliff with a deep valley way, way down, below.

Talking Rock

I was glad no one of my family was there to see how close to the cliff edge I was standing, nor was there to try and stop me from looking down.
I was looking right at Devil's Kitchen.
There are five geothermal areas in Lassen Volcanic NP. The best known ones are Bumpass Hell and the Sulphur Works areas. The other three are less known and are accessible by long hikes that are much removed from the main park road. Devil's Kitchen is one of them, and I am already planning to hike there on my next visit to Lassen Volcanic NP.
(A later edit: the plan fulfilled :-)

Devil's Kitchen

Last June, though, I had to settle for just viewing Devil's Kitchen from far above. And that was fine too.
Less fine was that the wind had picked up and the clouds were covering more and more of the sky.

So I completed my lake circumvention and headed back to the loop trail I diverted from. And although I had increase my pace. I still paid close attention to the vegetation along the trail.

Davis' Knotweed (Aconogonum davisiae)

A sweet song captured me. Up until that point I hadn't managed to photograph any bird on that hike: they were all too elusive. Even this one was very far, singing its song atop a tall pine. It was a song sparrow, which is hardly visible in this photo. The cloud, however, is why I posted it here. A thick, heavy, raincloud that was striding fast across the sky, heading my direction.
I picked up my feet and hurried along.

A song sparrow calling the rain. 

The term 'local rain' as very true when it comes to Lassen  area. I have experienced it there more than once: a heavy storm that affects only a small area, and whether I get wet or not is a matter of pure chance. Last year, at the Caribou Wilderness, I got soaked. This time, the rain cloud had passed me by.  By the time I neared Kings Creek again, the clouds parted enough to give me a nice glimpse of Lassen Peak, its coat of snow showing too much wear and tear for early June.

Lassen Peak

By the time I made it back to Kings Creek it was clear that this hike would stay untrained upon. So I took the time and lingered by the creek, contemplating getting wet anyway. I eventually did not. I wanted to hike another trail that day. So I crossed the little bridge and rejoined the main trail, this time taking it back toward the trailhead.

Even on my way back I kept my attention on the ground. And good thing too, because I found a few more wildflowers I had somehow missed on my way to the falls.

Dwarf Onion (Allium parvum)

Well, they were very small. Or just budding.

Pine Lousewort (Pedicularis semibarata)

Or it was just a better lighting that made for better photos on the way back. Either way, I had a great time finding all these flowers, and I haven't even posted all of them here.

Pine Violet (Viola lobata)

By the time I concluded my hike there where many more cars in the small parking pull-out. I have seen quite a few hikers on the main trail, heading down to the falls. The Sifford Lake loop though, was pretty much deserted. It is very beautiful, and makes a very nice addition to hikers with a bit more time on their hand, and it isn't difficult at all, so I very much recommend it. 

Driving back to the Loomis Visitor Center that's by Manzanita Lake and the northwest entrance to the park I took the time again and stopped next to a patch of lodgepole pine forest that had widely dispersed trees and a HUGE number of bright red snow plants poking through the thick pine-needle ground cover. These are parasitic plants that live underground, sucking the life out of tree roots, and show themselves above ground only when blooming. This summer there were so many of them, it looked like the entire forest had measles. I wasn't about to miss a close look at these magnificent flowers.  

Snow Plant (Sarcodes sanguinea)

When I arrived at the visitor center I got into a nice chat with the ranger there and shared my observations with her. When I was done she informed me I was very lucky indeed: that had been the last day before the park closed the access to Kings Creek Falls for the next couple of years, for maintenance work.

I stared at her in disbelief. Is that right? No access to the falls for two whole years?
She reassured me that the trail would remain open, there just won't be a view of the falls.

Yes, I was very lucky that day. My group, however, would have to wait out those two years before being able to see Kings Creek Falls. And now I had to check out an alternative trail for them. Having waterfalls in mind, that alternative turned out to be the Mill Creek Falls, near the southwestern entrance of the park.