My family and I hiked the Canyon Oaks Drive end of the Leona Canyon trail on Memorial Day weekend. This end of the trail is lower in elevation, and considerably wetter than the Merritt College end. A small creek runs along the trail, and drains into a marshy pool of water. We ended up hiking on the day it rained, but it was somehow fitting to walk through the lush, green forest in a misty rain.
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| Leona Canyon trail head, from Canyon Oaks Drive. The big willow thrives in a marshy area. |
The small creek hosts a riparian woodland plant community, with white alder, oak, willow, blackberry, and elderberry, to name a few. Many of the trees grow in standing water. California buckeye is plentiful and in full bloom. In fact, plant life is plentiful. It is almost difficult to distinguish individual plants because of the mass of vegetation.
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| Arched branches in an emerald green understory. |
I searched online to find out more information restoration efforts in California's riparian areas and found the River Partners website. They have a mission to create wildlife habitat, and to restore and protect the environment along streams and rivers in the Western United States.
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| A tunnel of vegetation. California Buckeye is in bloom on the right. |
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