CNPS San Gabriel Mountains Chapter

Fish Canyon

The track into Fish Canyon is very exposed, but eventually is shaded by sycamore, bay, bigleaf maple, alder, willow, and coast live oak trees, lined with ferns and poison oak, and surrounded by chaparral-covered slopes. While it's only a 4-mile round-trip hike, it is not readily accessible because the entrance is cut off by a commercial stone quarry. The photos here are from an outing in June 2006 organized by our CNPS chapter, when a representative of the mining company provided a shuttle service from the parking area through the quarry to the trailhead.

Click on the thumbnails to see higher-resolution images, 640 x 480 pixels.


The creek that flows through Fish Canyon		Evening primrose (Oenothera elata), found in the lower, more open part of the trail		Foothill penstemon (Penstemon heterophyllus

White alder (Alnus rhombifolia)	Elegant clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata)	Indian milkweed (Asclepias eriocarpa)	Common sunflower (Helianthus annuus)	California treefrog (Pseudacris [Hyla] cadaverina)

Plummer's mariposa lily (Calochortus plummerae) in openings in coastal sage scrub and chaparral		White sage (Salvia apiana)	Scarlet larkspur (Delphinium cardinale)

Scarlet monkeyflower (Mimulus cardinalis)	Lance-leaved liveforever (Dudleya lanceolata)		Matilja poppy (Romneya coulteri)

Farewell-to-spring (Clarkia bottae)		Heartleaf penstemon (Keckiella cordifolia)		Golden yarrow (Eriophyllum confertifolorum var. confertiflorum)

Common yarrow (Achillea millefolium)	Sticky monkey flower (Mimulus aurantiacus)		Southern honeysuckle (Lonicera subspicata)	Seeds of sugar bush (Rhus ovata)

Goldenstar (Bloomeria crocea)	Indian pink (Silene lacaniata)	Fairy lantern (Calochortus albus)		A lupine (Lupinus sp.)

	San Gabriel Mountains Dudleya (Dudleya densiflora)	The waterfall in Fish Canyon, the most spectacular in the San Gabriel Mountains, drops approximately 80 feet in several steps