A couple of months ago I signed up for a 6 hour long truck tour in the mountains right behind us. It’s an area that is not open to the public, but the Irvine Ranch Conservancy organizes programs there that you can attend. I was very excited about this truck tour, but unfortunately it had to be cancelled due to rainy weather. Luckily, I was able to sign up for a different day for a 4-hour long tour on June 8th.

The group met Donna, our driver, and the other 4 volunteers at the Augustine Staging area, where we started our trip on this truck:

We started out the day in foggy weather, so our leaders decided to change our route to better fit the weather. A few images from the still foggy morning:

Since the overcast weather was perfect for flower photography, and there was an abundance of flowers in the area (see next two images), taking pictures of flowers became the primary focus of the trip.

Sticky Monkey Flowers growing in the middle of a Coastal Prickly Pear Cactus patch:

A variety of wildflowers:

The area had lots of flowering cacti:

We stopped and took some pictures early in the morning:

And since I’ve started showing flower images, here are some more I captured:

Cardinal Catchfly

Artichoke Thistle or Cardoon (prior to flowering)

Splendid Mariposa Lily

Intermediate Mariposa Lily

Indian Paintbrush (with White Sage in foreground)

Muehlenberg’s Centaury

We saw some animals as well:

Hawks,

and a Pacific Gopher Snake.

The ride on the truck was bumpy, but quite beautiful. And as you can see, the weather also cleared up:

At two occasions we took easy, short hikes. Here is one of our leaders, Michael, on the hike to the Dripping Springs earlier in the morning:

And later in the day we hiked on the Markel Spur and Hangmans Tree trails:

Two beautiful stops were at the West and the East Sinks. The video is showing the East Sinks.

And to finish my post I’ll show you panorama images of the West Sinks and the East Sinks.

This truck tour was SUPER fun! We had great weather, wonderful volunteer leaders and beautiful sights. I am very happy that I was able to join this program.

If you live near Irvine, try one of the hundreds of programs organized by the Irvine Ranch Conservancy: www.LetsGoOutside.org.