I love chocolate. I love wildflowers. If I had to choose one over the other I don't think I'd be able to. Fortunately on Saturday I didn't have to choose - I got both :)
Sonya and I went on a hike on Saturday at the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve. This was my second visit, January last year was my first and the first time I went hiking with Sonya. Since then we've been on many hikes together, and we've seen many fabulous wildflowers. But Saturday was extra special. We set out to find the reserve's most famous blooms and we found a ton of them! The chocolate lilies were at their peak and my were they ever lovely. This species Fritillaria biflora is endemic to California and is an absolute gem of a flower.
We also saw 15 other wildflower species in bloom - especially profuse were the shooting stars, ground pink, and Johnny Jumpups. The weather was fantastic - mostly sunny but with some big clouds, warm but a cool breeze blowing. We hiked about 7-8 miles and along the way we saw some interesting fauna including caterpillars, hawks, and California newts!
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