Expanding the Horizons: Hiking at Fort Ord National Monument

Date: September 2, 2023

Place: Fort Ord National Monument, Marina, California 

Coordinates: 36.585292, -121.713587

Length: 5.6 miles

Level: moderate

On the last Labor Day weekend Pappa Quail and I left the chikas in charge of our home and pets and went on a romantic trip to Monterey. Romantic for us is being just us on the outdoors. We already hiked numerous times at Point Lobos State Park, unarguably the most attractive park in the vicinity of Monterey, and we were looking to see some new places. I found Fort Ord National Monument and decided to go check it out. We arrived at Ford Ord's parking area first thing on Saturday morning, and it was overcast and cool, and other than the trees, it was very, very dry. 

I chose the most reasonable loop trail that we could hike in the time we had. Starting southwest, we followed the dirt road beyond the gate of the parking lot. 

Our hike as captured by my GPS

 

 Close to the trailhead there were a number of large sycamore trees. They were still in their late summer foliage, but the hems of their leaves were beginning to turn brown and many of the lower leaves displayed large, yellow blemishes. Fall was in its beginning. 

Sycamore

There were more trees past the sycamores but they were mostly live oaks. A few bushes dotted the ground between the trees. I was surprised to see a wild rose blooming, way past its season.  

Calirornia Wild Rose, Rosa californica

We turned onto Guidotti Rd. and started ascending the hills. When we left the low ground we also left most of the trees behind. The hills were covered in dry grass, and looked very empty, same for a few, well separated from one another, oaks. 

Guidotti Rd

This is what is called and Oak Savanna plant community. Nearly the entire area was an open savanna grassland. The few oak trees were growing, one here, one there, or in narrow lines at the bottom of the dry gulches, where runoff water lasts the longest after a temporary post rainfall flow. 

Oak Savanna

On a broad view everything but the trees looked bone dry. On a closer view however, there was green plant life. Amongst the tall, dry grasses snaked the long vines of morning glory plants. Their dark, heart-shaped leaves offset the golden brown of the dead grasses. Some of the morning glory were blooming too, a very lovely sight. 

Western Morning Glory, Calystegia purpurata 

While I was admiring the morning glory, Papa Quail spotted another thing to admire - a pair of American kestrels on coyote brush somewhat off the trail. One of them flew away almost immediately but the other stayed and posed for a while. 

American Kestrel

We continued slowly uphill. The slope was mild enough but we kept pausing to look at things and to chat. Another hiker came up from behind us and passed us as a speedy pace. We were taking it slowly, matching the nature around us, a land laying in wait - waiting for the rains to spring back life. 

Guidotti Road 

Although it felt to me that we were moving slow, we did in fact, get to the high ground pretty quickly. From the higher part of the trail we had a nice view down the creek. The creek was lined with riparian trees and bushes, and in one place where the trees were parted, we saw a small pond. 

Pond

A bit higher up the creek I couldn't detect any water but I did see one huge eucalyptus towering from an island in the middle of the creek. Very likely that this island was formed by this very tree, which was holding the soil with its roots, slowing down the erosion. Eucalyptus trees are, of course, not native to California but are immigrants from Australia, brought here t drain wetlands and to provide cheep, fast-growing construction wood.

Eucalyptus

The entire area around us was mountainous. The mountains on the southwest were all forested with dark live oak trees. It was quite a sharp contrast with the open grassland of the hills we were hiking on.

Pappa Quail pointed out a pretty thistle to me. It was a bull thistle - very pretty indeed, but a non-native, invasive species in California.

Bull Thistle, Cirsium Vulgare, non-native, invasive

The tiny, white-flowered lotus was more interesting to me. It was also harder to see - I had to push away the dry grasses from over it in order to take a clear enough photo.

American Bird's Foot Trefoil, Acmispon americanus

We didn't see much wildlife on this hike. There were a few birds - Pappa Quail spotted them much quicker than me. I kept my eyes closer and found mostly insects, like this cool-looking velvet ant. 

The hills tapered off on the northeast, dropping down into Salinas Valley. Behind Salinas Valley however, rose the high ridge of the Diablo Range. A blanket of gray clouds stretched across the sky all the way to those mountains, but these were not the clouds of rain awaited for. 

A meadowlark raised its voice in song. It wasn't quite the courtship season, but a singing meadowlark is always a treat to listen to. 

Meadowlark

We approached the ridge, and from that high place we could see into Salinas Valley. We didn't see much there - the air was very murky. I did like seeing that sole oak on top of the ridge. 

On the ridge I found yet another fall wildflower - the heliotrope. Once again I was amazed by the liveliness and vigor of plants at the very end of the dry season, when most of the area plants were in suspension until the awakening kiss of winter rains. 

Heliotroph, Heliotropium curassavicum 

Tarplants are also among the late summer and fall bloomers. There are a number of tarplant species, categorized into several genera. It is beyond my knowledge to tell them apart. I love seeing them, nonetheless. 

Tarplant

For a moment the clouds parted and the mountains on the south - the north end of the Big Sur, were lit up by a crown of sunlight. 

We turned northeast on Skyline Rd, and started following the ridge line. The trail was mostly level, or undulated mildly up and down, but mostly downhill.

Skyline Rd

From Skyline Road we had good views in all directions. When the clouds parted we could even see Salinas better, despite the murky air. 

Salinas

Skyline Rd curved north and we continued straight on what was now called Oilwell Rd., still along the ridge. From there we also had a nice view, a much closer one, at the creek below us and the beautiful erosion pattern of the creek banks.

We passed another trail junction and the trail splitting off to the north was named Three Sister's Rd. and I had to look twice because of the odd way the name was written. We continued east on Oilwell Rd. and it was all downhill from that point, mildly at first.

Oilwell Rd.

Mustard was introduced in California by the Spanish missionaries in the late 1700s. They sawed it all over the coastal range areas and, like many other Mediterranean annual and biennial plants, it took very well in California, establishing itself as one of the prominent plant species along the California coast. It is in spring time when vast yellow mustard fields bloom seemingly everywhere, but single plants here and there can grow and bloom around the year. I've seen a few mustard plants blooming along our Fort Ord hike. This one in the photo below was visited by another introduced species - the honey bee.

Honey Bee on Mustard

I saw also some California asters that looked vigorous and were blooming in isolated spots along the trail.

California Aster, Symphyotrichum chilense

On the next trail junction we turned southeast toward Creekside, the little town nearest to the Fort Ord trailhead we parked in.

Creekside

The trail, named on the map Trail 45, had no junction signs. It did however, go pretty much straight down to the town and the creek path that we expected would take us back to the trailhead.

Trail 45

This Trail 45 was considerably steeper than Oilwell Rd. Pappa Quail went ahead fast but I took it slower, being careful on the loos gravel that rendered the path slippery. It also gave me the time to look at more plants along the way.

Sawtooth Goldenbush, Hazardia squarrosa

Pappa Quail spotted a coyote, and run ahead to get a better viewpoint for a photograph. By the time I caught up with him' the coyote was already gone. Oh, well.

Coyote

Below us, at the bottom of Trail 45 was a little pond. We were hoping to see some more wildlife near the water, although from our point of view we couldn't see any waterfowl in the water.

Near the pond we confirmed no waterfowl anywhere in sight. There were no other animals were visible either, but we did see two other hikers who lingered for a bit near the water before continuing up Trail 45.

I saw a small flash of pink and approached the pond to see what that was. It was the fresh inflorescence of a spotted ladythumb - a non-native riparian vine.

Spotted Ladythumb, Pesicaria maculosa

On another area of the shore bloomed a small, white mallow plant. Most mallow species I see in the Bay Area are also non-California native plants, but I did take some photos. It turned out that this one was a true local - a California native alkali mallow.

Alkali Mallow, Malvella leprosa

On the higher, dryer ground above the pond bloomed some lupine bushes. They too didn't care that it was the end of summer.

Silver Bush Lupine, Lupinus albifrons

We crossed Torro Creek, which was bone dry. Pappa Quail could hear little bush birds in the brush, but none of them was in the open for more than a second or so. These birds did not cooperate.

Torro Creek

We connected with Torro Creek Rd. and turned south. We had the very dry Torro Creek on the west and the fence walls of the outer Creekside houses on our right.

Torro Creek Rd.

Pappa Quail kept trying to photograph the elusive bush birds in the brush along Torro Creek. I settled for a more cooperative subject - a cat that was sitting outside the yard fence and looked at use with apparent lack of enthusiasm.

Eventually Pappa Quail did get to photograph another bird. Not one of the little bush birds, but a red-tailed hawk that flew over our heads.

Red-tailed Hawk

I was fascinated by a line of huge European walnut trees east of the trail. Clearly they were planted there, but it didn't look like anyone was taking care of them anymore. They were feral, with shoots of growing from the base of the stock part, which was American-native black walnut.

Walnut trees

Just before reaching the trailhead and completing our loop hike I took another look at the oak savanna hills of Fort Ord National Monument. It would be lovely to hike there in the spring time when the hills are green and the wildflowers abound. It would probably take a while though, before I return.