There is an entrance to the Fort Ord National Monument near us, a mere 20 minute walk from where we are camped at the Laguna Seca Regional Park. The monument was once an army base, rightfully billed as the most beautiful army base in America. Getting there from our camp requires climbing a steep hill and hiking along a ridge. We’ve been there twice. The first time we went without our cameras. Boy, was that a mistake. Wild flowers were bursting into bloom everywhere. Then we came upon a whole field of the eye popping beauties featured above. They came in multiple bright colors. Then and there, we vowed “We’ll be back!”
The next day found us climbing the hill again with my camera. Peggy’s camera, and our cell phone. Just in case. We entered the National Monument and I dutifully went to work, capturing wildflowers as I walked along the trail. Peggy took off like a greyhound. That woman can move when she has a mind to! I think she was afraid that the flowers we had so admired the day before would be past their prime, expired, and that somehow ten minutes was going to make all the difference. When I arrived a half hour later, the flowers were still in their prime, new ones had joined the crowd, and over a gazillion buds were waiting for their turn. Peggy quickly announced that she had taken over 20 photos of the flowers. She never takes 20 photos of any one thing. That’s what I do. Naturally, I had to add to her collection.
One challenge we faced was we didn’t recognize the flower. I knew it was a composite, a member of the vast family of sunflowers, daisies, asters, etc. Not a problem, we thought. Ha. That evening, I checked my National Audubon Field Guide to North American Wildflowers with its 666 entries. No luck. Okay, time to jump online. I typed in flowers of Fort Ord National Monument. Nope. How about flowers of Monterey County. Nothing. Flowers of the central Pacific Coast of California? Nada.
Then I remembered that we had added a flower ID app to our i-phone a few years back. Would it still be there? Peggy went searching and found it. She took a photo of my screen showing one of the flowers. And there was the answer: Gazania. What? We had never heard of it. Turns out it is a native of South Africa. I had taken photos of a number of flowers in South Africa on our safari trip there. But not Gazania.
Its beauty meant that it had been imported to the US and numerous other countries to adorn flower gardens. Not surprisingly, it had escaped. Monterey was listed as one of the counties where it happened. Following are a number of photos that Peggy and I took of the Gazania and other flowers we found along our walk both wild and wild-domesticated.
Yellow twins…Orange reddish triplets…A red single…A yellow single.A couple.A bouquet.Another bouquet.A field.A happy Peggy.Looking out from Fort Ord National Monument south toward the coast range and Big Sur.Coast live oaks on the edge of Fort Ord National Monument in Laguna Seca Regional Park. The top of a picnic table can be seen in the background. We walked through a very attractive tent campground on our way to the monument.We also found this flower growing on a bush in the campground just before we hiked into the monument. Our flower app described it as a gum Cistus.We were greeted by this sign as we walked into the park. With a rich military history behind it, the army base was closed in 1994 due to base realignment. In 2012, President Obama signed a proclamation declaring a portion of the former base as a national monument. Following are some of the wild flowers we saw. I knew most of them, but used the phone app to check.This golden violet was among the wild flowers I photographed along our trail.A member of the mallow family with spider. Can you find it?Bluedick with a bee.Yarrow with beetles.Vetch.Scarlet pimpernel.Golden eggs.It isn’t known for its beauty, but miner’s lettuce is noted for its edibility. The 49ers of the California Gold Rush mixed it into their salads regularly, as my mother did on occasion when I was growing up. I pulled a leaf and chomped down. Peggy nibbled a small bite cautiously.One of numerous members of the lupine family.Peggy and I were amused when we hiked back to our camp and found two Gazania perched above it that we had failed to notice previously. That’s it for today. Next up we will take you on two scenic drives: Ocean View Drive in Pacific Grove and the world famous 17 Mile Drive between Pacific Grove and Carmel.This view had Peggy and I both wondering what the heck we were looking at. Sea lions, yes. But doing what? I’ll explain what we learned in our next post.
Wandering through Time and Place 