Today I participated in the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden trip to Rattlesnake Canyon - led by Cathy Rose and Karen Telleen-Lawton. Karen is the author of a book about Rattlesnake Canyon. An excerpt from her book:

“Rattlesnake Canyon evokes a sense of mystery and fear, of wild nature and caution. The informal wilderness park in Santa Barbara, California overflows with coast live oak woodlands that spill steeply into a boulder-lined creek crowded with willow, bay, and alder trees. The quiet solitude of midday in the canyon is as alluring as the morning and evening choirs of Canyon Wren, Spotted Towhee, and California Quail. It suffers – and is nourished by – the same wild natural events that typify any Southern California canyon: floods, earthquakes, and fires.”

Rattlesnake Canyon was overflowing with the blossoms of Bigpod Ceanothus, the flowers of which I had not photographed because they seemed to bloom before I started exploring spring flowers each year (since 2002).

Wildflowers in general seem to be late this year - there were only a handful of varieties along the shaded path running beside the creek.

(California Buttercup and Wild Hyacinth)

There seems to be year-round water in the creek. Karen told the group about an interesting observation she made one September - that the creek seemed to have more water despite the fact that there had been no rain or any other obvious source of additional water. She eventually discovered that this phenomenon occurred because the trees were not extracting as much water from the creek as they did in the summer.

For more information on Karen’s book, please see her website, Canyon Voices.

For more information on the trail, please see Diane Soini’s website, Santa Barbara Hikes.

For a set of wonderful scenic shots of Bigpod Ceanothus taken in early morning mist, please see Callie Bowdish’s slideshow.