Eight people attended this joint Shasta Chapter CNPS and Shasta Environmental Alliance field trip to Paradise Meadow in Lassen Volcanic National Park on September 17. We carpooled to keep down our CO2 emissions down.
It was a summer hike that seemed like mid fall due to the overcast skies and cold temperatures—definitely not summer weather. It was about 45 degrees when we started, and in the low 60s when we finished. We walked the first part of the trail fairly fast just to warm up.
While few wildflowers were in bloom, we did see a some flowering alpine aster, marsh marigolds, arrowleaf senecio, Bloomer’s rabbitbush, angelica, yampah, pearly-everlasting, scarlet gilia, and yarrow. Due to its bright red fruit, we noticed a western mountain ash just off the trail, a plant we hadn’t noticed in previous field trips in years past. Along the way we identified the six conifers found along the trail: red fir; white fir; mountain hemlock; and lodgepole, Jeffrey, and western white pine.
This trail is over 7000 feet in elevation. We were the first people on the trail, so we had it to ourselves, although we did run into a few people on our way back.
~David Ledger
