Trabuco Outdoors Blog

Revisiting the Santa Rosa Plateau

If you are looking for a good aerobic workout, there are plenty of trails in the Santa Ana Mountains that will accommodate you. With Santiago Peak reaching an elevation of 5,687 feet, the climb will raise the heart rate of the most fit hikers. If you are looking for a leisurely hike, head out to the Santa Rosa Plateau in Riverside County in the hills southwest of Interstate 15 roughly between Lake Elsinore and Temecula. There are several loop hikes ranging from a couple of miles to over 10 miles which have an elevation gain of no more than a few hundred feet.More info is available here.

Just ran out of time, but I'll have more on the SRP shortly.

Santa Rosa Plateau 9/5/11

 

 

A few more photos fom the Santa Rosa Plateau

I made it out to the SRP a few weeks ago and was fortunate enough to hit it during an early morning storm. The Adobe Loop Trail, which was closed for research the last couple of times I've been to the plateau, is now open.

 

 

More Santa Rosa Plateau

Here's another photo from the Santa Rosa Plateau last Saturday. This was shot from the top of Monument Hill looking eastward, roughly at the center of the plateau. The plateau has a wide variety of plant communities. From this view, you can see the oak woodland and bunchgrass prairie at the left, and the heavy chaparral to the right. Most of the chaparral in this photo is in the Mesa de Burro area of the Santa Rosa Plateau which is a research area and closed to the public.

Stormy Saturday on the Santa Rosa Plateau

Fellow photographer Carl Garrard and I spent the morning taking photos on the Santa Rosa Plateau last Saturday during the brief storm.

Although we arrived at sunrise, there was no brilliant sunrise due to the heavy overcast and fog. That was okay with us though since we had great light the rest of the morning.

Here's a photo of a struggling oak silhouetted against the storm clouds.

Vernal eternal

Thanks to the Nature Conservancy, a few of the once-common vernal pools in southern California will forever remain undeveloped. This photo of the large pool was taken last week at the Santa Rosa Plateau. The main pool appears to be about 75% full right now, but I am not familiar enough with the pools to provide an accurate estimate. The best source will be Tom Chester's site once he updates it.

There are a number of wildflowers starting to bloom including the chocolate lily, shooting stars and California poppy. Also, there are mini-forests of poison oak (and wild cucumber) adjacent to the Trans Preserve trail. While driving home in the I-15 freeway, I noticed hillsides covered with what appeared to be California poppy.

Friday morning on the plateau

As usual, I started my hike on the Santa Rosa Plateau last Friday at the Vernal Pool Trailhead. It's a great place to start a sunrise hike since it starts at a higher elevation with nice views overlooking the oak woodland and rolling prairies to the northeast. Also, it provides several trail options including the Los Santos Trail and Trans Preserve Trail within a half mile of the trailhead. As expected, the vernal pools are shallow this early in the season.

One of the reasons I prefer the plateau for hiking is the variety of landscapes over a relatively small area. The vernal pools are less than a mile on a flat stretch from the trailhead, and after passing the pools, I continued on the trail decending through a section of chaparral and then down to the rolling grasslands surrounding the old adobes. After hiking the riparian Adobe Loop Trail, I prefer to continue to the east on the Punta Mesa Trail until continuing further east on Monument Trail to the secluded area adjacent to the closed Mesa de Burro section of the preserve. 

If you hike these trails in the early morning, you are virtually certain to see wildlife including deer, coyotes and the occasional bobcat. Based on the scat and tracks, it's not that there are fewer bobcats than coyotes; they just don't present themselves for viewing as often. The return to the Vernal Pool trailhead via the middle section of the preserve was through  grasslands which are dotted with Engelmann and live oaks. Here is a link to a more detailed description of the Santa Rosa Plateau and photos of the preserve.

Another early morning hike

When my wife told me we were meeting her folks in Temecula for lunch, my first though was: isn't that near the Santa Rosa Plateau? As usual, I prefer to start my hikes on the plateau at sunrise. With the long June days, that meant another early morning. Still, I much prefer the soft light and cool temperature of the early morning. I headed straight to the Adobe Loop Trail which is a heavily wooded riparian area of the plateau located near the old adobes. The photo above is a canopy of coastal live oaks reflected in one of the tenajas along the trail.These tenajas retain water due to the basalt stream bed and would otherwise be dry much of the year due to the seasonal nature of the drainage. Additional info on exploring the plateau.

Early morning on the plateau

It's never easy for me to get up at 3am. It got a lot easier though anticipating a fantastic sunrise on the Santa Rosa Plateau. I started at the Vernal Pool Trailhead and continued past the now almost dry pools. I was decending toward the old adobes when the sun rose above the horizon. When the horizon is perfectly clear, there seems to be about a 2 minute window when the entire landscape is bathed in a soft warm glow. Although I didn't feel like I had a great composition for a photo, I did get a couple of quick shots. Of course, no matter where you happen to be, you wonder if another location would have been a little better. I no longer stress over not being in the right location for a strong photo composition when there is perfect light. It's foolish to waste a moment as rare as this. It's more important to just enjoy the sunrise.

Rock wall at the old adobes, Santa Rosa Plateau - Photo by Gregg Adams

This photo was taken the same morning I made the short hike to the vernal pools (see below). I met Gregg briefly on the Vernal Pool Trail. As I stayed near the vernal pools, Gregg continued hiking to the old adobes which are about a mile from and a few hundred feet lower than the vernal pools. I asked him to send me photos, and here is one of them. I want to include other people's photographs in TrabucoOutdoors.com since one person's vision will get monotonous. I like the composition with the rock wall and horizon forming a "Z" with the wind mill in the background. The cloud level must have remained above the adobes, but just below the elevation of the vernal pools. Thanks for the contribution Gregg!