Eagle Rock Self-Guided sages. This evergreen has narrow dark green #6 - Dairy Creek, Camp San Luis and West Cuesta the spiny rolled edges. Like other oaks, the Coast and -yellow in spring and Ridge Vistas - Take a short break here and enjoy the Live Oak was a major food source for the Chumash Nature Trail summer. The young stems and leaves have been view to West Cuesta Ridge. Burned extensively in Indians. In early spring a golden glow may appear on used as salad greens by Indians. The crushed raw 1994 by the huge 41 these trees. If you take a branch covered with tiny Welcome to the Eagle Rock Self Guided Nature leaves and stems have been used to heal burns and Fire, the Los Padres catkins, you can see the yellow fly on the Trail. This is a 1.8 mile trip to explore the flora, wounds. National Forest is breeze. This is the first step towards the tree making fauna and history of the Chorro Valley. This trail Coyote Bush (Baccharis making a strong acorns. offers great views of Chorro Valley and surrounding pilularis) is a common recovery. Many new hillsides. Take your time and enjoy your outdoor of . It has seedlings have started to #9 - Dusky-footed Woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes) adventure. small leathery leaves 1/2 grow, including the Nests - As you look around you will see what seem If at the end of your adventure and you no longer to 1 inch long, with a Sergeant Cypress to be piles of debris up to 6 feet high. These piles want the brochure, please return to this guide to the hard covering, indigenous only to West may be located on the brochure box when you are through so others may especially on the side Cuesta Ridge. The valley ground or in trees. use it. exposed to the direct sunshine. Whitish-yellowish in front of you is split by Dairy Creek, a year round These are actually clusters form at the ends of the branches and stream which joins Chorro Creek then flows into the homes for the Woodrat. #1 - Poison Oak (Toxicduidron diversilobum) - A branchlets in leafy panicles. This hardy shrub is often Morro Bay Estuary. Up until 1978, El Chorro Female nests are member of the Cashew , poison oak the greenest plant to be seen during our long dry Regional Park was part of Camp San Luis. Below is located on the ground, flourishes throughout the summers. Camp San Luis the training grounds for the National while males nests are Central Coast, especially in Guard. From this vantage point you may see a Red- located in the branches moist areas, eroded ravines #3 - Signs of the Chumash Indians (Mortar Holes) tailed Hawk or Turkey Vulture soaring overhead. of trees or . Woodrats are nocturnal and and shady chaparral slopes. - Do you see any remnants of the Chumash Indians? solitary, but the abundance of nests seem to indicate Its form varies: it may be a Look closely and you will find several bowl shaped #7 - Eagle Rock Viewpoint - Welcome to Eagle a good food supply. Woodrats subsist largely on climbing vine or a squat holes in the rock. Rock. You are now above the San Luis Obispo acorns, oak leaves, and a variety of berries when in shrub. Its leaves are usually The Indians ground acorns from Coast Live Oaks Botanical Garden. From this vantage point you can season. Woodrats may be distinguished from other 1 to 4 inches long and in (Quercus agrifolia) into meal using mortar holes. The see Camp San Luis, Cuesta College and the similar sized rodents by their large ears and hairy clusters of three. Small meal was placed into a pit to leach out the bitter botanical area below. Across the Chorro Valley are tails. Woodrats in coastal scrub and chaparral yellow green, star shaped by repeated dousings with water. The the Morros, a chain of ancient volcanoes (plugs) endure the summer drought periods by drawing flowers appear in clusters leached meal was then boiled with water in a formed about 20-25 million years ago and a part of water from various of prickly pear cactus. of new growth in spring watertight basket to which hot stones were added. the Franciscan Formation. The most visible Morros when the leaves are vivid, The cooked mush was then eaten immediately or are (the farthest west), , Cerro #10 - Snowberries (Symphoricarpos mollis) - A glistening green. In late summer prepared into flat bread. Cabrillo, and directly in front of you, member of the Honeysuckle family, a low trailing, and early fall the leaves change color to red. , which rises above the Cuesta much-branched shrub about 18 inches tall. Its leaves In winter the leaves fall off making it hard to identify. #4 - Trail Junction - At the trail junction you are College campus. The connecting ridges between the are broad oval to round, softly hairy on both sides, Most parts of the contain a yellowish oil standing at the start of a hillside grassland. The plugs consist of various rock types from the up to three-fourths of an inch (urushiol) which may cause a rash or blister when it grasses are occasionally filled with a variety of Franciscan Formation. The most impressive is the long or larger, on sterile is touched. There is an old saying “Leaves of three, wildflowers including Red Maids, Checker Bloom and narrow ridge of serpentinite between Hollister Peak shoots. The flowers are small, let it be!” Blue-eyed Grass. If you are short of time you can and Cerro Romauldo. The serpentinite hills are bell-shaped, pinkish white and take the left trail 0.8 miles to the road. This will conspicuously bare of vegetation, due to the lack of in pendant pairs in axils or #2 - Coyote Bush/ Sagebrush/Monkey shorten your trip by 0.6 miles. However, you will miss certain chemical elements in serpentinite soils. The small clusters. Snowberries Flower- Is California Sage really a sage? No, it is some excellent views of the Morros and West Cuesta serpentinite also harbors several rare plants, bloom from April to June and aromatic like the true sage, but it is a member of the Ridge by not going to Eagle Rock. including the Obispo Mariposa Lily off season flowers are sunflower family while true sages are in the mint (Calochortus obispoensis), which has commonly found on these family. Lightly press one of the leaves of the silvery #5 - Scrub Oaks (Quercus dumosa) - Scrub oak is adapted to these unusual soils. bushes. In late summer and fall plant and note the scent on your fingers. California found growing in the coastal mountains, usually in the large conspicuous white sagebrush (Artemisia californica) is named because the dry chaparral regions. Due to the harsh #8 - Oak Woodlands - These Coast berries appear. its odor is much like that of the herb family. Indians conditions in which it is found, this oak grows as a Live Oaks (Quercus agrifolia) Snowberry is also an important plant for wildlife; ate the seed and used the leaves to make a green shrub. The glossy green leaves are small, thick, and characterize the woodlands of this bees produce a white honey from the and dye for tattooing. leathery. The Scrub Oak still produces acorns similar area. As the name suggests, live pollen, animals eat the berries and birds use the Monkey Flower (Mimulus sp.) is also found near to larger oak trees. oaks keep their leaves all year; note bushes for shelter. #11 - Hummingbird Sage (Salvia spacthacea) - #14 - Intermittent Streams - Intermittent streams Flowers found along the Hummingbird Sage has red flowers which make it are created wherever there is enough seasonal popular with its feathered friend, the hummingbird. moisture to cause surface water to flow. These Eagle Rock Self-Guided Eagle Rock The hummingbird sticks its long narrow beak deep streams provide water for wildlife and a variety of Nature Trail into the red flowers to drink its nectar. This large- vegetation. Animals come here to drink under the Self-Guided Nature Trail leafed, coarse-foliaged plant associates with black cover of vegetation to avoid being seen by predators. Arroyo Willow (Salix Iasiolepis) sage and bush monkey flowers in the coastal scrub. These animal may be seen by the quiet and Black Nightshade (Solanum nodiflorum) El Chorro Regional Park This sage may also be found under trees in foothill observant hiker, especially at dusk or early in the Black Sage (Salvia mellifera) woodlands as seen here. Hummingbird sage morning. Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma pulchella) reproduces using both ground runners and seeds. Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) With light monthly watering this plant will continue #15 - Lichens - These two large rocks are almost California Buttercups (Ranunculus californicus) to flower almost all year round. completely covered by lichens. A lichen is an California Hedge Nettle (Stachys bullata) association of a fungus and an alga. A common gray California Honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula) #12 - El Chorro Regional Park Vista Point - Take lichen on these rocks has a black margin and one California () a short break here and enjoy the view of El Chorro can see where adjacent lichens are encroaching on California Poppy () Regional Park. Mule deer (Odocoileus heminous), one another as they grow, producing a jigsaw puzzle California Sagebrush (Artemisia californica) common in the park, are frequently seen in the effect. Other lichens on the rocks are orange, yellow, Checker Mallow (Sidalcea malvaeflora) valley in early morning and evening. The Chumash and gray green. Saucer-like structures with brown Common Yarrow (Achillea spp.) hunted them with bows and arrows, centers which bear fungal spores are on some of the Fairy Lantern, Globe Lily (Calochortus albus) stalking them from gray-green lichens. Look for these reproductive Filaree (Erodium cicutarium) downwind until close structures on lichens of rocks to the south of the path Golden Yarrow (Eriophyllum spp.) enough to shoot. Deer between here and the road. Hummingbird Sage (Salvia spathacea) provided meat to eat, The dry exposed surface of a rock is an Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja spp.) bones for needles and inhospitable place. Lichens which live there often Indian (Silene spp.) tools, sinews for bow grow less than 1/50th inch per year. Johnny Jump Ups, Yellow Violet ( pedunculata) strings, and fur for Owls Clover (Orthocarpus purpurascens) clothing and blankets. #16 - Dairy Creek as a year round creek and the Meadow Lupine (Lupinus ssp.) No part of the deer Sycamores - Our last stop is located along the Milk Maids (Dentaria californica) was wasted. paved road at the start of the Three Bridges Trail. Mustard (Brassica spp.) Look closely on the ground; you will undoubtedly Sycamores are one of our most handsome native Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) see deer tracks along the trail. trees, with their molted greenish white bark and large Plantain (Plantago spp.) angular branches. When they Popcorn Flower (Plagiobothrys nothofulvus) #13 - Ferns - Under the shady trees you will find leaf out in mid to late spring, Purple Nightshade (Solanum xanti) several species of ferns. Indians ate the juicy and they are often impacted by a Footsteps of Spring (Sanicula arctopoides) tender young shoots of a number of ferns. They also fungal blight, anthracnose, Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) ate underground runners and utilized the shiny black that kills these first young Shooting Star (Dodecatheon spp.) stems of some species in basket making. leaves. However, another Snowberry (Symphoricarpos mollis) Like bunch grasses, ferns have leafing out period ensues and Soap Plant (Chlorogalum pomeridianum) extensive root systems which help survives to manufacture Star Lily (Zigadenus fremontii) stabilize soil. These same root nourishment in the summer sun. Sticky Monkey Flower (Mimulus aurantiacus) systems allow them to survive Remember this when you see Vetch (Vicia gigantea) California’s hot dry summer. these withered young leaves in Wild Cucumber (Marah fabaceus) In winter and spring, look for the town. Be patient, these hardy Prepared for: Wild (Rosa californica) The San Luis Obispo County delicate and lacy maiden hair fern natives will survive. Yerba Buena (Satureja douglasii) (Adiantum jordanii) along sections of the trail. Other Sycamores also play a part in nature by providing Parks and Open Space species here include the California polypody on rock food storage for the acorn . Look for the Prepared by: faces, wood ferns growing in round clusters on the myriad of holes on the back side of the sycamore The Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club ground, and the small silverback fern which has trees. If you look closely, you might find holes with Printed on Recycled paper P.O. Box 15755 yellowish powder on the underside of its new leaves. acorns still in them. San Luis Obispo CA 93406