Gary-Summer: April 11, 2017 - Wallace Creek, Carrizo Plains

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

April 11, 2017 - Wallace Creek, Carrizo Plains

Title: April 11, 2017 - Wallace Creek, Carrizo Plains
Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Trail head:Wallace Creek Trailhead

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking : Car

Trail: Wallace Creek Trail

Destination: Monument Boundary

Distance: 2.70 miles 1

Start Time: 3:00 appox

End Time: 5:01

Travel Time: 2:01 (1.34 mph)

Moving Time: 0:34 (2.38 mph)

Elevation Rise: 326'

Maximum Elevation: 2,500'
GPS Tracks-Driving

GPS Tracks-Walking Wallace Creek

¹I discovered I had not turned on my GPS when we started. So the recorded tracks is only the return trip, which was 95% downhill. I have doubled the distance from the GPS; used the descent as the elevation rise; moving time is only the downhill. But the start time is a guess.

Description:

This write up will be a bit sparse. Not so much because of the lack of things to see, but my words will not compare to the pictures. The mileage above is only for the Wallace Creek trail, not the Soda Lake Boardwalk or Overlook.

At the entrance

For several years I had been hearing about the Carrizo Plain and wondered what the attraction was. This year we started to hear that the wildflowers were plentiful and really worth going there. One thing about the Carrizo Plain is it remoteness. It is a three hour drive from Fresno. So did we really want to drive six hours in a day? We decided to do an overnight and take a room in San Luis Obispo. Even that is an hour and 40 minutes away.

We got ready at a leisurely pace-leaving Fresno a touch before 10:00am. Sherri drives down Highway 41 until Kettleman City. I then take over, going down a maze of roads-thankful for GPS’ in this case, including Highway 33, Bitterwater Road, then ending up on Highway 58. We pass a large solar collector field before turning off on Soda Lake Road. Nothing really promising yet on the flowers, but a lot of greenness in the hills. But then after going 6 or 7 miles down Soda Lake Road we reach the Monument boundary. When we paused for a picture we look around and see hills covered with yellow.

This turns out to be the entrance to fields of color. We stop at an Overlook to Soda Lake, There is a parking lot behind the hill, but we park by the road and walk up a dirt road a couple hundred yards. Then climb up the hill which serves as the Soda Lake Overlook. This serves as a 360 degree look around the Carrizo Plain. If nothing else, this is a good first stop just to get one’s bearings. We are able to see Soda Lake in the foreground and the Temblor Range to the east. Then to the south and west is Caliente Mtn. All over the the plain and up the sides of the mountains are blossoming flowers. There is a warning for us though: like the garden a long time again, there is a snake spotted. Somebody said it was a rattlesnake. The 2 seconds of view of the snake I saw made me think it was big.

People on the Overlook

On the overlook

Sherri on boardwalk

From this height, we go down to the level of the Sada Lake. Instead of a bird's eye view, we see the flowers up close. There are Nelder and Ferris Goldfields, along with Purple Owl’s Clove and, of course, California Golden Poppies. We walk down to the lake on a dirt path. But once there, we walk along a boardwalk for a good third of a mile. The lake on one side and fields of flowers on the other. Nice. We have lunch on a bench.

Gary on boardwalk

Now what to do? We decide to go to the east side of the plain to a place called Wallace Creek. To get there, it is off of paved roads and onto dirt, washboard type roads. Except for the vibration, the road is not bad, as long as we go about 15-20mph.

Wallace Creek is noteworthy because there is an example of fault movement of the tectonic plates. In this case the North American and the Pacific plates. The trail has an interpretive brochure with it-you can get it online. We walk up the trail-a long straight pathway to an embankment. Behind the mound is where Wallace Creek flows, while at least if there was water in it. The creek comes straight down the hillside until this spot and takes a right turn for 30 yards or so. Then continues on down the hill. This right turn is the result of the plate slippage talked about before.

Wallace Creek

But today, that is not the attraction. It is the wildflower fields beyond this point. Not only are their fields of yellow like we have been seeing, but purples, blues, oranges and white. So we climb up all the way to border of the monument. Flowers were covering the hillside. But you can tell that from the pictures.

After we came back to the car, we returned back to the main road and went down to the Visitor’s Center and had our sandwich dinner outside. The Visitor Center is opened for limited number of days. So we sat out on the picnic bench. After we finished our eats, it was time to head over to San Luis Obispo and our hotel-Travelodge. But as we were going down Highway 58, we saw buffalo. Not one, but about a dozen of them. We stopped and gawked for about 15 minutes. The buffalo belong to the Camatta Ranch which also has rents out rooms-maybe the next time we go to Carrizo Plain we will stop there.

It is starting to turn dark and we still have an hour to go to San Luis Obispo. When we get in, it must be around 8:00pm or later. Looks like there is some construction going on. But we are tired and ready for bed. We get our room and go up the stairs. But the room looks like it had been slept in already. So another trip down and we get another room. After reading for a bit, sleep comes quickly.

Background

Wallace Creek. I use topo maps. A lot of times I use older ones because while they may not show the latest development, the land does not change, does it? In this case, when I look at the older 1959 topo maps, the land has changed. Wallace Creek along the fault has moved a great ways, about 420' in the last 3800 years. When looking at the 1959 topo maps, the creeks show most of the creeks with a straight down. But one creek does not. You can download both an interpretive guide and the Geological Society of America Field Guide for this area.

Extra Photo's