Snodgrass Slough Trail & Cosumnes River Preserve - Jan. '26 

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On Friday, January 2nd, eleven of us met for coffee at Rescate in Elk Grove (at I-5.), afterwards driving 15 miles south to Walnut Grove, for a walk on the Snodgrass Slough levees.  Our first walk here was a year ago.  (I'm ignoring the AllTrails name of Meadows Slough for this walk.)

The extensive slough is tidal, fed by a Sacramento River Delta Cross Channel Gate, at Locke. We parked near the gate structure, not especially photogenic. Due to a rainy storm season so far, the river was unusually high, as was the slough. 

For the hikers it was a lucky break, having enough time for two walks in one day, between storm systems.  

note - on a pc or laptop you can zoom into any part of a photo, but alas, not on a smartphone. 

	the group, see note 1		heading north		Snodgrass Slough
		heading south			same mushroom, see note 2
	the way back (further south)		Linda and Dominic heading home early		heading west
		(dormant) bee boxes		< Bermuda buttercup & poison hemlock >
	the slough, looking east		looking north, note 3
		same area a year ago

note 1 - R2L: Frank, Karen, Jean, Barb Go., Dominic, Cynthia, Linda, Marcia, Barb Gr., Rick, and me; photo provided by Frank. 

note 2 - Bolbitaceae mushrooms are dependably hallucinogenic, but some varieties are poisonous to eat, or even to touch !    

note 3 - At the top center of this photo the Twin Cities bridge can be seen, but we didn't get that far today. In Dec. 24 we crossed that road & walked another half mile north.

Cosumnes River Preserve, new to some of the group, was only a short drive away.

Being on the Pacific Flyway means the Preserve is great for bird watching in winter months. The highlight here is tyhe presence of Sandhill Cranes, with a seven foot wing-span, often flying in low formations, making a unique high-pitched 'cackle', a great thing to see & hear (more Crane info below). The only Cranes we saw were feeding in the fields along Desmond Rd., some distance from the main set of lakes. 

	CRP, see note 1				on the boardwalk, see note 2
				northern pintails feeding
	coots		CRP Visitor Center		pond to the east of the visitor center
		Coots on the move		Black-necked Stilts

note 1 - At the CRP, whenever we glanced southwest we could see the next storm, sitting on the horizon.   

note 2 - in the distance are two radio/TV towers, the tallest at 3,500 ft. high.  

We walked ~ 3.5 miles on the slough trail & another 1.5 at the CRP, at least five miles for the day, with negligible elevation gain. 

Return to Cosumnes River Preserve - On Weds., Jan 28, Dave, Jean & I walked on the east side of the UPRR tracks and saw some attractive ponds & an open-space array of giant Oaks.   

	eastern side		Valley Oak		same tree
		UPRR tracks (white egret behind branches on left)		Blue Heron
	more big oaks
		heading south to the River		< Cosumnes River behind us & UPRR bridge >
	heading back		January light		on the levees

We got in about 3 more miles of walking in this interesting environment. At times there was some wind from the north, but we were all dressed for it.  

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Cosumnes River at CRP image from Wikipedia

The Cosumnes River has the smallest watershed in Ca., and on the CRP property it combines with the Mokelume River and flows through Snodgrass Slough to the Sac River, via the diversion structure at Locke.