Meadows Slough Trail/Cosumnes River Preserve - Jan. '26
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On Friday, January 2nd, eleven walkers met for coffee at Rescate in Elk Grove at I-5. After 30 minutes we drove about 20 miles south to Walnut Grove, to walk on the Meadows Slough levees.
Extensive Snodgrass Slough is tidal, fed by the Sacramento River via a Delta Cross Channel Gates, at Locke. Due to a rainy storm season so far, the river is running high, as is the slough.
The group had good fortune, having just enough time for a walk between storm systems. A few days earlier this was predicted to be a windy day (15 mph), but it didn't turn out that way.
note - on a pc or laptop you can zoom into any part of a photo, but alas, not on a smartphone.
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the group, see note 1 |
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heading north |
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Snodgrass Slough |
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heading south |
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same mushroom, see note 2 | |
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the way back |
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Linda and Dominic |
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heading west |
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dormant bee boxes |
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Bermuda buttercup | ||
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poison hemlock |
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the slough, looking east |
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looking north, note 3 |
note - 1 - L2R: Me, Rick, Barb Gr., Marcia, Linda, Cynthia, Dominic, Barb Go., Jean, Karen, & Frank.
note 2 - Bolbitaceae mushrooms can be hallucinogenic and/or poisonous to eat, or even to touch !
note 3 - At the top of the photo is the Twin Cities bridge; we didn't get that far today but did a year ago (Dec. 24 walk).
Only a short drive away was the Cosumnes River Preserve, new to some of the group.
Being on the Pacific Flyway, the Preserve is a great place for walking and bird watching, especially in winter. Sandhill Cranes here are great to see & hear, but we only saw them feeding at a distance field and not in the air. They are beautiful to see, flying in low formations, with an unmistakable high-pitched 'cackle'.
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on the boardwalk |
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northern pintails feeding |
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coots |
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CRP Visitor Center |
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American Avocets |
The hikers probably walked 3.5 miles on the Slough trail & another 1.5 at the CRP = 5 miles, for the day.
While at the CRP, to the southwest we could see the next storm front gathering.
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Postscript - I mentioned to a few walkers that on the east side of the CRP are giant Oaks, worth photographing this time of year. The photos below were taken in Feb '22.
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In mid-winter, the low angle of afternoon sun accentuates the impressive structure of giant (bare) Oaks, contrasting nicely with fresh green grass. In any decent rain season here, spring grass is out by late November.
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