Event Types: Field Trips

We will continue our 2025 field trip season with a couple of trips in the “high country”. July is a great time to visit mountain meadows in the Sierra Nevada. We’ll visit Page (Paige) Meadows near Tahoe City. Page (or Paige) Meadows is included as one of the “Great Places” on Calflora, which provides a […]

We have changed the trail location for our August 15 field trip! Instead of taking the trail from the Meiss Trailhead at Carson Pass, we will take a trail nearby that goes south from Highway 88, just west of Carson Pass. We will take the trail from Woods Lake, about 8100 feet in elevation, going […]

Beginning at the Lyons Creek trailhead at 6,750 feet, we will hike up Lyons Creek to about 7,200 feet, about 4 miles round trip. We will encounter open granite, mountain meadows, and fir-lodgepole conifer forest, all under the shadow of the beautiful Crystal Range. The wildflowers are gorgeous in the early summer, including a variety […]

This trail begins at the Charity Valley trailhead off Blue Lakes Rd, which is accessed from Highway 88 east of Carson Pass. This trail can take you down to Grover Hot Springs State Park in 5.5 miles passing through a variety of habitats including upper montane forest, seeps, aspen groves, rocky slopes, and lower montane […]

Benwood Meadow is a short hike south from Highway 50, and according to Julie Carville in Lingering in Tahoe’s Wild Gardens, sporting displays of pink-flowered mountain meadow plants, including shooting stars (Primula tetrandra, P. jeffreyi) and elephant heads (Pedicularis groenlandica). We’ll also be looking for Quamash camas lilies (Camassia quamash), seep-spring monkeyflower (Erythranthe guttata) and […]

Hope Valley is a gorgeous expanse of mountain meadow through which the Carson River flows eastward, a popular fishing location. The Valley is surrounded by high Sierra peaks and expansive clones of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides). The slopes are covered with trees of the upper montane forest, including some very large Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi). […]

Lava caps are late seral communities of annual herbs, perennial shrubs, and a few depauperate (a kind of semi bonsai) tree species. They are open rocky areas on ridgetops or ridge ends within the forest, and especially on Peavine Ridge. These ridges are formed by pre-historic volcanic mud flows (Mehrten Formation) and centuries of erosion, […]

Washoe Meadows, a California State Park gem, is easily accessible from Highway 50 near South Lake Tahoe. There are lovely trails through the meadows, including boardwalks across more sensitive, wet portions and over streams. We’ll see bog-orchids (Platanthera dilatata var. leucostachys), checkermallows (Sidalcea oregana ssp. spicata), cinquefoils, fleabanes, roses, currants, many pollinators, and much more! […]

These tours will bring you up close and personal with not only the 8+ rare plant species that the Preserve was established to protect with habitat conservation, but you’ll also see the diverse habitats of the Preserve, from grassland to (two types of!) chaparral, to oak woodlands, and many, many other plant species. The Pine […]

These tours will bring you up close and personal with not only the 8+ rare plant species that the Preserve was established to protect with habitat conservation, but you’ll also see the diverse habitats of the Preserve, from grassland to (two types of!) chaparral, to oak woodlands, and many, many other plant species. The Pine […]