Date: April 20, 2026
Place: Stallion Springs, Tehachapi, California
Coordinates: 35.096448, -118.665699
Length: 2 miles
Level: mildly moderate
My night at the Mojave Narrows Regional Park was a weird one. After completing my hike to Castle Rock and the Bluff Reserve I said a temporary goodbye to the Big Bear Valley area and drove northeast to Victorville. I arrived at the regional park and registered for camping. The wind was blowing very strong and I found it challenging to pitch my tent. The campground was on a narrow strip of dirt between the road and the lake and I was the only one there. As the day wore off and the other park users went away I found myself alone in that entire area of the park. Usually I have no issue with being alone. My stay turned out to be creepy when I realized that a security vehicle was patrolling the road every 20 minutes or so. When I used the shower facility the security officer knocked hard on my door, scaring me, demanding to know which was my campsite. On the next patrol I stopped him and asked what was the deal with all the patrols. The officer insisted that this was for my (and other campers that were on the other side of the park) protection. I asked protection from what and he answered that this park was completely safe and I need not worry. He wasn't able to resolve the paradox - if the park was completely safe why was there a need for a patrol round every 20 minutes?
Anyway. I was tired enough to sleep undisturbed. In the morning I saw a group of great-tailed grackle males doing a dance and song on the lawn across the road. While I was breaking camp a beautiful, adult bald eagle flew over my head very low. The security patrols have ceased and the morning park visitors, mostly anglers, were milling in and taking positions near the lake.
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| Great-tailed Grackle, males |
I wanted to do a hike that day and not spend all of it driving. My choice was the Comanche Trail at Stallion Springs, in the Tehachapi Mountains. It was a trail I hiked before with my chikas and their friend on one of our spring skiing trips to Mammoth Lakes. I didn't have my camera then and I never wrote about it. I parked at the tiny parking area, had a quick meal and looked around. The first thing that caught my attention was a California towhee that was foraging near the picnic tables. As soon as I got my camera ready the towhee turned tail and hopped away.
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| California Towhee |
The other thing I noticed was a patch of blooming lupines. The lupines were not close enough for my regular cameral lens so I switched to the birding lens that Pappa Quail equipped me with before heading out on my trip.
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| Chick Lupine, Lupinus microcarpus |
I looked across the valley to the other side, which was the north-facing slope. The slope was forested with oak trees, which were mostly live oaks. In the valley below were larger oaks with lighter green foliage. These were valley oaks. The south-facing slope right below me had areas of open grass and the grass was already drying out. Last time I was here was early in April and I remember it being completely green. Now I was here in the same month, two weeks later on the calendar, but much later in the season. I remembered this place full of wildflowers then. I wondered how many wildflowers I'll be seeing today, and what kind.
The trail was not a circular one, I remembered that much. It would be an in-and-out trail, unless I made it into a circle coming back on the upper road, which is what I eventually did. I decided to take both camera lenses with me, knowing that it would slow me down to switch lenses but wanting to take advantage of having the stronger birding lens with me as well.
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| My hike as captured by my GPS |
I started hiking with the wide lens attache to my camera. The trail went down into the valley, starting with a railed flight of stairs.
At the edge of the trail I noticed the small chia plants blooming. Chia is of the later season wildflowers and seeing it pretty much set me into what kind of flowers I'd be seeing there - the end of second to early third bloom wave.
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| Chia, Salvia columbariae |
Only a few steps down the trail I switched the lenses: A western fence lizard was sunning itself on a rock which wasn't very close to the trail .
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| Western Fence Lizard |
I used the same lens to take a photo of a California buckwheat that was blooming down the trail. I took the photo from a distance - the bording lens isn't good for close-ups.
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| California Buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum |
A the bottom of the valley was a small creek. Looking from above, it didn't seem to me that the creek was flowing. I remembered it was flowing on my last visit there.
I paused midway down to take a photo of one of the valley oaks that grew by the creek below. The Tehachapi Mountains are not as high as the mountains surrounding Big Bear Valley. Over there the deciduous oaks were just beginning to bud out. Here at Stallion Springs the valley oaks were already in full foliage.
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| Valley Oak, Quercus lobata |
I continued down the trail. A white butterfly flew by me and landed in a tiny clearing between the grasses. It opened and closed its wings a few times, then flew away.
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| Checkered White Butterfly |
I remembered the creek being narrow enough to hop across. This time it was clear that I wasn't about to even try - the creek banks have eroded considerably wider. They also looked very crumbly still. There was a log bridging the two banks but I didn't feel like trying to balance on it. There was no water flowing in that part of the creek so I ended up simply stepping into it and then out on the other side.
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| Creek Crossing |
The next part of the trail is stretched east to west along the creek. I started by going westward, passing right under the large valley oak that was near the creek crossing.
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| Valley Oak, Quercus lobata |
The trail was narrow and lined on both sides with bushes. Beneath the bushes bloomed some wildflowers such as beeplants and the blue witch nightshade.
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| Purple Nightshade, Solanum xanti |
A gap in the bushes gave me another view to the creek. On a rock at the creek bank two western fence lizards were sunning themselves. The lizards turned to regard me but didn't run away.
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| Western Fence Lizard |
On the other side of the creek was a mass of boulders. On top of one of these boulders sat a California ground squirrel, busy eating something.
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| California Ground Squirrel |
I resumed my hike, continuing west on the trail. The trail was rising slowly above the creek, and for some distance I was out in the open. Seeing that the lizards were out and about I was wary about rattlesnakes. I keot on the lookout for them but saw none.
The opposite slope was the south-facing slope. It was considerably drier, had fewer trees and bushes growing on it, and no visible wildflowers.
I was glad to be walking on the north-facing slope, which was much greener and had many trees for their shade I was thankful, because the day had turned out quite hot. 
There were wildflowers too on the north-facing slope. Not very many, but wildflowers nonetheless. I kept my wide lens on the camera for most of that trail stretch.
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| Ithuriel's Spear, Triteleia laxa |
I didn't have to see or hear the acorn woodpeckers to know they were around. An acorn granary pine tree, still half-full of acorns was great evidence of their presence in the area.
Last time I hiked this trail it ended soon after ascending above the creek. At the trail end was a nice view of the downstream part of the creek and a single homestead not too far away. The view was still nice but the trail did not end there any more - now it continued onward. Intrigued, I continued walking west on the new trail segment.
The grassy area between the trees was mostly green still but already beginning to dry. In between the grasses were plenty of wildflowers. The miniature lupine wasn't so miniature here - it had to compete with the tall grasses for the sunlight.
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| Miniature Lupine, Lupinus bicolor |
On the upslope I spotted a flower that looked at first like a mariposa lily and my heart skipped a bit. It was too early in the season for the mariposa lilies however, and the flower was a species of clarkia. The grassy slope was steep and slippery so I switched my lenses and took a zoomed in image of the flower, where a pollinator bug is visible inside through the translucent petals.
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| Speckled Clarkia, Clarkia cylindrica |
A bit later a found more clarkia flowers blooming on the downslope too, and I could look into them and see the pollinator bugs directly.
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| Speckled Clarkia, Clarkia cylindrica |
The common fiddleneck that tends to cover huge fields in the Tehachapi Mountains wasn't so common along thie trail. I saw only a few of them on this hike.
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| Common Fiddleneck, Amsinckia menziesii |
A few elderberry bushes were present near the trail, and all of them were in bloom or beginning to bloom.
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| Blue Elder, Sambucus cerulea |
The forest mate of the elderberry was well represented there as well - the California buckeye tree. The buckeyes had their inflorescences out, but the flowers haven't opened up just yet.
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| California Buckeye, Aesculus californica |
Right on the trail, growing out of the dry soil cracks, were small clamps of the wildflowers that are appropriately named pretty face.
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| Pretty Face, Triteleia ixioides |
When I looked down on the trail I found more than the pretty face flowers. Even smaller, and way more numerous were the variable linanthus flowers.
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| Variable Linanthus, Leptosiphon parviflorus |
The forest opened up, becoming sparse, with wide, grassy gaps between the trees. On the opposite hill it was no longer a forest by definition but what is called and oak savannah.
My navigator showed that the trail was about to end meeting at a road. The last few steps on the trail were also in an oak savannah. Just before reaching the end of the trail I started hearing loud cries of hawks.
One of the hawks was really close and I was quick to locate it - it perched on bare branches of an oak that was only partially alive. The hawk was crying at the top of his lungs and another hawk answered it from a more distant tree. I didn't see the second hawk but eventually the one that I did see took flight and joined the other one where it were, disappearing from my sight.
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| California Red-shouldered Hawk |
At the very end of the trail was a large, healthy looking interior live oak . The oak had its bottom sheered off at an even height from the ground - the approximate height of a goat. Herbivore clean-grazing oak bottoms is something I was well familiar with from the parks around my home. In this case however, I suspected it was a human hand that straightened up the tree's bottom. For one, none of the surrounding trees near by were so nicely cut. It seemed to me a very inviting place to through a picnic blanked and enjoy some outside time, perhaps for the people in the homestead that was across the road.
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| Interior Live Oak, Quercus wislizeni |
Thinking of the long drive that was ahead of me yet, I decided to not spend any resting time at the end of trail oak. I looked around some more and then I turned around and started down the same trail.
I spotted a beautiful male western bluebird that perched atop an oak tree, in full view. The bird seemed to be at ease so I took a moment to switch to the birding lens that I carried. When I raised the camera again however, the bird in my view was an acorn woodpecker. The larger woodpecker had chosen the moment of my lens switching to chase off the bluebird and settle in its place. Oh, well.
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| Acorn Woodpecker |
While having my birding lens on I took the chance to photograph well the turkey vulture that kept circling above my head, as if checking out wether I was dead yet.
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| Turkey Vulture |
Well, I wasn't dead yet so I moved on down the trail. The day was getting quite hot and I welcomed getting under the tree shade again.
Pretty butterflies enjoyed the sun's warmth, fluttering from flower to flower, drinking nectar, gathering pollen, and sometime taking a rest while displaying their wings.
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| Mylitta Crescent Butterfly |
When I reached the creek again I crossed it at the gap where I saw earlier the two lizards and the ground squirrel. The lizards and the squirrel were no longer there and I wanted to explore and see what else I might find on that side of the creek. My navigator indicated that there was a trail there but if indeed there was one at some point, it was now overgrown and none discernible. After a few minutes I crossed the creek again and returned to the trail.
I reached the point where I first crossed the creek after descending from the trailhead and continued straight ahead eastward.
Live oaks lined this part of the trail. Some of the oaks carried so many large balls of mistletoe that they looked drained.
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| Oak Mistletoe, Phoradendron villosum |
I was seeing some wildflowers on this part of the trail as well. When I saw the penstemon blooming right by the creek I had a memory flash of seeing this penstemon at this very place on my last hike of this trail.
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| Mountain Blue Penstemon, Penstemon laetus |
The trail curved to the south and begun ascending mildly. The vegetation closed in on the trail, tall and thick. I was already sweating profusely so I welcomed the shade whenever it was available.
At the edges of the trail at the feet of the bushes were large clamps of California beeplants in bloom. As the name suggests, numerous bees were busy about these flowers.
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| California Beeplant, Scrophularia californica |
The trail ended at the spring. The spring, which was wet and flowing on my former visit at the place, was now bone dry. There were only a few wildflowers blooming around the spring and the weeds and grasses were starting to dry out.
The trail curved again, then ended. Now I had to decide - to go back on the same trail like I did on my previous visit, or go up to the road and return from there. I decided this time to take the high road. I found a narrow foot path leading up to the road and I took it, passing fragrant ceanothus bushes on my way.
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| Buckbrush, Ceanothus cuneatus |
A red-tailed hawk flew by and circled above me, showing its colors, especially its beautiful red tail, under the brilliant blue sky.
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| Red-tailed Hawk |
The foot path was really narrow, indicating very little use. There were more wildflowers blooming on the drying slope still, mainly perennials. The Douglas milkvetch was well represented there.
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| Douglas' Milkvetch, Astragalus douglasii |
There were also more chick lupine shrubs. The chick lupine here was much paler than those I've seen in other places. The chick lupine I see blooming in the Diablo Range, like in the Pinnacles National Park and south of the Carrizo Plain National Monument are purple. The chick lupine of the Tehachapi was of light lilac.
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| Chick Lupine, Lupinus microcarpus |
Even before reaching the road I was hearing bleating from above. When I reached the road and looked at the source of the sound I saw a lovely goat inside a fenced yard. Not quite wildlife but I like goats and I don't get to see many on my hikes.
The trail I hiked ended at Jack Hill Road and after a short walk north I reached Comanche Point Rod and turned west to get to where I parked. Across the road was an exposed rocky slope and beautiful California poppies were blooming between the rocks. These were the only poppies i saw on my hike that day.
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| California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica |
There wasn't much traffic on the roads that day in Stallion Springs, but there were some other interesting sights. Other than the goat, I saw a guy exiting his house with a shotgun. He noticed me and turned to regard me for a long, uncomfortable moment. I continued walking and he turned away. I was glad to leave that house behind me.
The west end of the Tehachapi Mountains was close and I had a view of the San Fernando Valley far below. The road, I knew, didn't go all the way down there. I would have to drive all the way back to the city of Tehachapi and reconnect with SR58 to continue my drive home. There would be no shortcuts here.
Right before reaching the trailhead area I saw the bluebirds again - a couple of them were perched on a tree across the road from the staging area. I switched the camera lenses again and this time no woodpecker chased the bluebird away and I got my desired photo.
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| Western Bluebird, male |
Hiking the Comanche Trail at Stallion Spring was a lovely break in my drive. This lovely trail is a great place to see wildflowers and wildlife. I would love to visit this place again next time I'd be in the area. It was a perfect end of a lovely weekend in Eagle Country.
