Cronan Ranch - May '26
return to index
Cronan Ranch, a BLM property, is located 25 miles south of Auburn on scenic hwy 49. The hiking group has walked here more often in the last few years, being closer to home, with a good trail selection.
On our first visits a few years back, Rich brought us to the northern trailhead, and we walked most of those trails. We walked two trails last year, one on the route to Satan's Cesspool (who wouldn't want to see that ?), but we never got there, and, in November, we instead started at the eastern car park & enjoyed an extended riverside trail, and some steeper terrain in the hills above, completing about 40% of the trail we returned to today.
Because we had a long storm season in northern California, from October to May, the hills remained green, and wildflowers were often seen along the trial.
On the map below, we were on the Gerle and Connector trails and then the Down & Up trail, returning via the Sky Ridge trail to the Magnolia Ranch car park.
|
|
the map |
|
Owl's clover |
|
us |
|
|
poison Hemlock |
|
testing turbidity in Hastings Creek |
|
|
|
|
|
Himalayan blackberry (see note) |
|
Valley Oak | |
|
|
giant Blue Oak & the South Fork of the American River |
|
< Pinkfairies and Twining brodiaea > |
|
|
|
|
nonstop ascent from the river to the lunch spot |
|
lunch view, looking upstream towards Coloma |
|
|
|
|
on the way back |
|
Barb, Cynthia, Marcia & Jean | ||
|
|
Grassnut |
|
south fork at far west of park |
|
|
|
|
poison oak |
|
Golden brodiaea | ||
|
|
Hooker's balsamroot |
|
nearing the car park |
note - online sources say that Himalayan blackberry is very invasive & grows throughout the Sierra foothills, out-competing native blackberries.
return to index
Postscript
In about 3 hours we walked at least 6 miles & got in about 900 ft. of gain. For the most part, it was breezy, cool & overcast, a perfect day to be hill walking !
The sun emerged only for the last 20 minutes, and the temp went up 10 degrees. This was quite possibly the last day of spring '26, because within a few days we were in the 90s at home.
By the way, my backyard rain gauge showed 27.5 inches for the season, with normal being 18-21 inches
Misc. - Plant ID is via Picture This, and AllTrails is used for trail planning.
return to index