Eagle Rock Self-Guided sages. This evergreen plant has narrow dark green #6 - Dairy Creek, Camp San Luis and West Cuesta the spiny rolled edges. Like other oaks, the Coast leaves and orange-yellow flowers 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 pollen 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 shrub of chaparral. 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 flower 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 Family, 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 shrubs. 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 tannins 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 species 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 Morro Rock (the farthest west), Black Hill, Cerro #10 - Snowberries (Symphoricarpos mollis) - A glistening green. In late summer prepared into flat bread. Cabrillo, Hollister Peak and directly in front of you, member of the Honeysuckle family, a low trailing, and early fall the leaves change color to red. Cerro Romauldo, 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 plants 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 leaf axils or #2 - Coyote Bush/California 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 nectar 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 Peony (Paeonia californica) a short break here and enjoy the view of El Chorro can see where adjacent lichens are encroaching on California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) 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.