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Hicks Road Wildflower Hotspot, 5/20/21 by Ronald Horii
Many years ago, my friend and fellow docent, Cait Hutnik, told me about a wildflower hotspot on Hicks Road between Almaden Reservoir and Mt. Umunhum Road, at a little pulloff on the road. There's a tiny canyon that has lots of wildflowers, particularly Lindley's blazing stars and canyon dudleya. I've been there several times over the years to see them. Cait has a webpage from 2011 about this spot:
http://hicksroad.com/html/blazingstars.htm
On 5/20/21, I was on my way to Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve. I went up Hicks Road from Alamitos Road. I stopped by the wildflower spot and took these pictures. There wasn't a lot of flowers, but there was a lot of species, plus some butterflies. Look how many plant species I saw, and these were just the ones that were blooming at the time.
Unfortunately, being next to the road, this is also a dumping spot. There was a cleanup there in 2015.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.921291477894375.1073741907.100000405933924&type=1&l=069056348a
Fortunately, it's not too bad now. Technically, it's in Almaden Quicksilver County Park, but it's not really marked on the park map:
http://www.newalmaden.org/AlmadenQuicksilverGuideMap.pdf
Many years ago, my friend and fellow docent, Cait Hutnik, told me about a wildflower hotspot on Hicks Road between Almaden Reservoir and Mt. Umunhum Road, at a little pulloff on the road. There's a tiny canyon that has lots of wildflowers, particularly Lindley's blazing stars and canyon dudleya. I've been there several times over the years to see them. Cait has a webpage from 2011 about this spot:
http://hicksroad.com/html/blazingstars.htm
On 5/20/21, I was on my way to Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve. I went up Hicks Road from Alamitos Road. I stopped by the wildflower spot and took these pictures. There wasn't a lot of flowers, but there was a lot of species, plus some butterflies. Look how many plant species I saw, and these were just the ones that were blooming at the time.
Unfortunately, being next to the road, this is also a dumping spot. There was a cleanup there in 2015.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.921291477894375.1073741907.100000405933924&type=1&l=069056348a
Fortunately, it's not too bad now. Technically, it's in Almaden Quicksilver County Park, but it's not really marked on the park map:
http://www.newalmaden.org/AlmadenQuicksilverGuideMap.pdf
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