A High Sierra Oasis: Exploring Horseshoe Meadow

Horseshoe Meadow

Date: July 6, 2024

Place: Golden Trout Wilderness, Lone Pine, California

Coordinates: 36.448342, -118.170700

Length: 2.4 miles

Level: easy

 

 

Last 4th of July fell on a Thursday. Pappa Quail took Friday off work and him and me went on a long, 4 days trip to the southern part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. We stayed in California Hot Springs and our plan was to hike trails along the Sherman Pass Road. As it was, at the time of our trip, California, especially Southern California, experienced an intense heat wave. We did get some hiking in the area we wanted but for the most part, we sought refuge from the heat by going higher in elevation. We hiked to Sherman Peak, which was the highest point along the Sherman Pass Road, but after that we didn't quite know where else to go. Eventually I came up with the idea of going all the way down to Owens Valley, then up to Horseshoe Meadow, which is over 10,000ft in elevation. I have been there three times already - it was the trailhead for my Golden Trout Wilderness backpacking trip in 2017 and for my six days of Whitney backpacking trip in 2022. I've also visited it briefly with my botanist friend in the spring of 2018. Pappa Quail, however, have never been there before. Although it meant a very long drive that day, the thought of escaping the heat and seeing a place he'd never seen before made it an easy decision for him. 

As for me - did I mind going to Horseshoe Meadow for the forth time? not at all. I knew that at this time of year there will be a great display of wildflowers there. 

Frosted Buckwheat, Eriogonum incanum

We arrived at Horseshoe Meadow around lunch time so we started with a lunch picnic. Already in the picnic area were wildflowers, decorating the dry coarse granite sand forest floor. 

Brewer's Lupine, Lupinus breweri

Location rules dictate that food should be stored in bear boxes. All the bear boxes around were already full however, so we tucked all of our food safely and out of sight in the cargo box on the car's roof. We took enough water for a short walk and headed out down the trail towards the meadow. 

Popcorn Flower, Plagiobothrys sp. 

The forest that surrounds Horseshoe Meadow is made of lovely lodgepole pine trees. Pine trees are some of the hardiest trees in the world - they live, even thrive, in places of hard conditions where very few other tree species could grow.  

Given the space to spread out, lodgepole pines also grow in unique shapes and forms. They also retain their gnarly beauty even when dead.  

Lodgepole Pine, Pinus contorta

The lodgepole pines were very well spaced and the forest floor beneath was very well lit. Even so, very few plants were growing between the pine trees. Most of the plants that did grow there were in bloom, except the Draba whose season was pretty much over. I was fortunate to find one straggling individual Draba that had a few open flowers still.

Brewer's Draba, Draba breweri

The wallflower was also nearing its bloom season but there were still a few blooming plants of this species here and there.

Mountain Wallflower, Erysimum perenne

The reason for the relatively low plant growth in this forest isn't the inhibitory layer of shodden pine needles I presume, and certainly not the lack of direct sunlight. I think it is because the soil is composed primarily of granite gravel which doesn't hold much moisture once the winter snow melts. 

There was a quick movement in the trees - a yellow-rumped warbler. Yellow-rumped warblers are very common in the Bay Area, but we don't often see the Audubon variety, and this one was in breeding plumage.

Yellow-rumped Warbler, adult breeding Audubon

This granite gravel also makes a great camouflage backdrop for the little plants. If I wasn't actively looking for flowers I would have most likely missed more than a few. 

Sierra Mousetail, Ivesia santolinoides

There was one plant I was looking for specifically, and that was the Pygmy Mountain Parsley. I saw it on my first solo backpacking trip in 2017, which begun (and ended) in Horseshoe Meadow. At the time I didn't realize how special and rare this little plant was. Now I was determined to get good photos of this little botanic jewel, which is endemic to the southern High Sierra. As a result, I now have too many photos of theselittle beauties, and a difficult time choosing which to post here. 

Pygmy Mountain Parsley, Oreonana clementis

We exited the forest into Horseshoe Meadow, and my impression was somewhat subdued. The first time I saw Horseshoe Meadow was in August of 2017 and the entire place was ablaze with wildflowers. The granite gravel field between the forest edge and the meadow itself was covered with monkeflowers, lupines, and other wildflowers. All the long drive up to the meadow I raved to Pappa Quail about the fantastic bloom up there, and now it looked almost bare. 

The trail crossed the gravel field straight ahead. As we walked on I saw that the field was, in fact, populated with many wildflowers, just not many of the purple colored monkeyflowers that I remembered. 

Frosted Buckwheat, Eriogonum incanum

There were even lupine plants blooming here and there. Not a carpet of them (we saw that later, on the other side of the creek) but they looked lovely and made me happy. 

Tidy Lupine, Lupinus lepidus

The meadow itself looked very much in bloom, with mats of yellow and purple flowers across the fine greenery that planks the creek in the middle. The creek itself was easy enough to detect, even though we couldn't see the water yet. It was marked by the low cushions of willows and other riparian bushes. 

Horseshoe Meadow

Coming from the east, it is an easy, flat walk to Horseshoe Meadow. Exiting or entering is from any other direction means going over a mountain pass. On the northwest I could see the green meadowy slope where the creek was coming down the mountain between he peaks. On this slope goes the trail to Cottonwood Pass, which is where I returned on my 5-days backpacking trip back in 2017. 

Cottonwood Pass

A bit more to the north poked a pointy peak which I believe is of Cirque Peak, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. A few small snow patches were visible still on the eastern slope of the fore mountain, but I figured that with the current heat spell they would be soon gone until the next snow fell. 

Cirque Peak

We moved closer to the creek and I looked southwest where there was a lower mountain pass - that was Trail Pass which was where I had gone over the mountains and deep into the Golden Trout Wilderness in 2017. The Pacific Crest Trail traverses that crest west of Horseshoe Meadow. 

Trail Pass

The first belt of greenery that covered the granite gravel comprised of low, knee-high bushes that might be rabbitbrush or relatives. The bushes were not blooming but in between them bloomed many other wildflowers. 

One of the wildflower species that bloomed between the bushes was the very red and conspicuous, was the alpine sheep sorrel.  

Alpine Sheep Sorrel, Rumex paucifolius

Most of the yellow blossom between the rabbitbrush were of their botanical family relatives, the goldenrod. The goldenrods were at the peak of their bloom, creating yellow lace-like patters on the grayish-green background. 

Northern Goldenrod, Solidago multiradiata

In the more exposed places I saw more of the pygmy mountain parsley, and this is the last picture of this cute little wildflower that I post here. All the other hundred will remain in my hard drive. 

Pygmy Mountain Parsley, Oreonana clementis

My first time at Horseshoe Meadow back in 2017 apparently coincided with the mass maturation of tree frogs from their tadpole stage. The meadow itself was very soggy and the entire area near the creek was flooded and muddy, and with every step I made, multitudes of little frogs jumped away, startled by my footfall. Now the meadow soil was dry and there wasn't any frog in sight. The creek was calm and beautiful.  I didn't see any tadpoles in the water. Perhaps they had already matured and the frogs gone into hiding. 

The trail continued on the other side of the creek. There were a few stepping stones in the water but they seemed to be further apart than what I remembered them to be. Pappa Quail spotted a log across the creek a but off to the side and he went to check if that log was a better way to cross the water without wetting our feet. 

Meanwhile I stayed by the main trail and checked out the wildflowers that bloom by the creek side, and there were many of them to look at. 

Slender Cinquefoil, Potentilla gracilis var. fastigiata

Some of the flowers were what is called in the botanists' jargon, "belly plants" because one needs to go down on the belly to get a good photo. Well, I didn't actually lie down on my belly but I did kneel on the ground to get that close up. 

Carpet Clover, Trifolium monanthum

I heard Pappa Quail voice calling me but I couldn't see him when I rose up from my kneeling position. He was somewhere behind the willows down the creek. I got up and went to look for him. 

On my way to find Pappa Quail I found more wildflowers, including the lovely field ivesia, which I first saw blooming near Spring Lake in the Mineral King area when I was backpacking there with my friend in the summer of 2016. 

Field Ivesia, Ivesia campestris

When I came around the willows I saw that Pappa Quail had already made it across the creek. He was already near the edge of the green belt, where the trail extended into a low mound of granite gravel before entering the woods. 

 While I contemplated balancing on that log bridge, Pappa Quail focused on a pretty bluebird that was standing on one of the rocks off the trail.

Mountain Bluebird

 

As I approached the makeshift log bridge I took a closer look at the reddish-pink flowers that also bloomed between the rabbitbrush. These were paintbrush plants, which are saprophytic - they are attached to other plants' roots. These Alpine paintbrush were likely connected to the rabbitbrush, not merely filling the space in between. 

Dwarf Alpine Paintbrush, Castilleja nana

Right by the creek was a small clamp of shootingstar flowers. After I crossed the creek Pappa Quail asked if I'd seen them. Of course I did. 

Alpine Shooting Star, Primula tetrandra 

Not often do I pay attention to grasses. Too many grasses in California are invasive species, and many species, native and exotic alike, are difficult for me to identify. Still, some grasses very pretty looking, and I make the effort to identify them. 

Mountain Bentgrass, Agrostis variabilis 

Across the creek, the trail continued strait ahead across the gravel field and into the lodgepole pine forest. Pappa Quail was quite a distance ahead and I hastened to catch up with him and tell him what I already knew from my first backpacking trip here in 2017 - that this trail continues up the mountain where it meets with the Pacific Crest Trail. The mountain ahead was Trail Peak and left of it was Trail Pass, where I have entered the depth of the Golden Trout Wilderness on that backpacking trip.

Trail Peak

Pappa Quail was not about to go up another mountain today - it was a very hot day still, although up here it wasn't as bad as it was in lower altitudes. He did however, want to find a place in the shade where we could sit down for a short break, so we continued past the younger trees and into the older forest. 

After our little break we edged back through the trees toward the meadow. There was no trail looping back to the parking lot but we didn't want to backtrack on the same trail we came out on, so we started moving cross-country on the gravel belt near the edge of the meadow, heading eastward.

One-seeded Pussypaws, Calyptridium monospermum

There were many little belly flowers blooming on the gravel field south of the creek. Of these wildflowers, I was thrilled to se the little monkeyflowers that I remembered from my first visit there.

Bearded Monkeyflower, Diplacus barbata

There weren't mats of them - just a few clamps here and there. Their scientific names were also changed since 2017. I thought of going back to edit my old blog posts with the new names, but eventually decided against it. I correct only mistakes, when I catch them.

Skunky Monkeyflower, Diplacus mephiticus

Step by step, we edged away from the gravel mound where the trail was, which was now north of us. It was a sunny, and very hot day, and I couldn't help thinking of the last day of my 2017 backpacking trip, when a hailstorm caught me up near Cottonwood Pass and transformed into an incessant rain that followed me just about all the way back to the parking lot. It was cloudy and cold then, and it was in August. I could have used some coolness, clouds and rain now, but none were in the forecast.

View north toward Cottonwood Pass

We were walking right at the edge of the meadow, and a bit above it. From where we stood we had a very nice view of the meadow itself, all the way to the creek and beyond. There were patches and strips of wildflowers in different mixes of species, creating a gorgeous quilt of colorful blossom.

Wildflowers in Horseshoe Meadow

Right where we were at the edge of the granite gravel, were wildflowers as well, although not in thick mats.

Pumice Alpinegold, Hulsea vestita

Well, not in thick mats, but nice patches of color. The lovely purple was of the tidy lupine, which I've seen individuals of north of he creek, but here it grew in pretty groups.

It was time to start looking for w way across the meadow and the creek to get back to the Horseshoe Meadow Trailhead and the parking lot. We edged closed to the meadow and while looking for a suitable place to get across I looked also at the wildflowers that grew in the meadow itself.

Tundra Aster, Oreostemma alpigenum

There were a lot more shootingstars in this part of the meadow. The shootingstars and the tundra asters made a big part of the pinkish-blue patches of bloom in the meadow.

Like the grasses, I don't usually pay close attention to sedge and rushes, but the sedge here was at its peak bloom as well and looked very lovely, accompanying all the other wildflowers in the meadow.  

Thread leaf Sedge, Carex filifolia

A bit more east the gravel belt disappeared and the forest came right up to the meadow's edge, with only a band of rabbitbrush bushes in between. I led the way through the shrubs toward the meadow where I thought I saw a path at least partway to the other side. Pappa Quail followed me incredulously.

 A little sparrow was singing on top of one of the small pines at the edge of the forest. Pappa Quail lingered a but to take a closer look at the little bird.

Vesper Sparrow

The creek was closer to the south edge of the meadow, meaning closer to us than to the trailhead. we passed the bushes and entered the meadow where the earth was much more damp. Here we had to tread with much more care - besides the muddy spots there were also lots of really small bog wildflowers.

Common Water Buttercup, Ranunculus alismifolius 

Some of these wildflowers I'd already seen on the north side of the meadow near where we've crossed the creek. There were more of them here and they looked happier too.

Tube Starwort, Pseudostellaria jamesiana

There were also wildflowers blooming on the south side of the creek that I haven't seen yet on this visit, such as the little elephant's head lousewort. All and all it looked like this part of the meadow retained its moisture much longer than the north side.

Little Elephant's Head, Pedicularis attollens

The willow bushes were much larger and thicker here too. Thankfully we did find our way between the willows to get to the creek's bank. Now we needed to see how to cross the creek to the other side.

Mountain Willow, Salix eastwoodiae

It was right there, at he bank of the creek that we spotted our first frog that day. An adult green Sierran tree from that hastened to hop away from us.

Sierran Tree Frog

Pappa Quail found a narrow enough place to jump across the creek. I found that place a bit too wide for me to jump so I duly removed my shoes and waded across. The feeling of the cool creek water on my feet was really nice and refreshing. I also soaked my hat and let the cool water drip over my head and back.

Pappa Quail saw a bird and walked back toward the willows trying to locate it. Meanwhile I found a flat rock and sat down to put my shoes back on. I couldn't see where was the path I thought I detected, but I knew the general direction in which we needed to go.

Horseshoe Meadow

Pappa Quail didn't find his bird and returned, somewhat disappointed. I did find another wildflower that I haven't yet seen on this visit, and a really tiny belly flower as such - the primrose monkeyflower.

Primrose Monkeyflower, Erythranthe primuloides

I also found some Sierra penstemon, or at least I hope that's what this species of penstemon is, because it was the only clamp of them that I saw that day, and they usually like to grow in large patches.

Sierra Penstemon, Penstemon heterodoxus

As we moved toward the north edge of the meadow we startled yet another Sierran tree frog. This frog too was an adult.

Sierran Tree Frog

Eventually we did find that narrow path that I saw from across the creek. This path led directly into the forest to where the trailhead campground was. I think that the campers use this path (in fact, they probably created it) to get to the creek to fill up on water.

Horseshoe Meadow

We paused at the edge of the forest. I wouldn't have minded staying there longer, but we did have a very long drive ahead- nearly four hours to get back to our cabin in California Hot Springs, on the lower west slopes of the Sierra Nevada.

Getting back to the parking lot was a quick thing, even without an official trail. There was very little undergrowth or forest debris to obstruct our movement. The only thing we needed to circumvent were the tents at the campground. There were however, more wildflowers, such as the Kern monument plant.

Kern Frasera, Frasera tubuosa

Right by the parking lot I found yet another penstemon species in bloom. It was the royal penstemon, but it was a small plant.

Royal Bearddtongue, Penstemon speciosus

 Pappa Quail also made a nice find by the parking lot - a cute little chipmunk that paused nicely on a log before scurrying away into hiding.

Alpine Chipmunk

It was a long drive to get to Horseshoe Meadow, and a long drive to return from there. Was it worth it? I think it certainly was. We stopped to fuel before turning onto the Sherman Pass Road and the temperature outside was 113 fahrenheit, so we really didn't have much choice of outdoor places to be at that day. Hour visit at Horseshoe Meadow was very lovely. We got to see a gorgeous place full of gorgeous wildflowers, and I sure got the itch to go back there again, hopefully soon.