In keeping with our recent tradition, we tried out a new hiking spot over the weekend, the Bonny Doon Ecological Preserve. We didn’t have a map and I don’t like not knowing where I am going, but otherwise we had a good hike.

Bonny Doon Ecological Preserve is a special place. It is the home of a few endangered species such as the Santa Cruz Cypress (see picture), the Ben Lomond Wallflower, and the Silver Leaf Manzanita. I didn’t have my native california plant guide with me so I couldn’t really determine if I saw them or not. I’m pretty sure the picture that I have here is the Santa Cruz Cypress. There are only a little over 5,000 of these trees left, and most of them are here at this preserve! Interestingly, as a side note, I was browsing the current periodicals on friday and found a journal called “American Forests.” I grabbed the most current issue and opened the magazine to an article about the Santa Cruz Cypress. So of course I wanted to take the short drive up to Bonny Doon over the weekend to see if I could find this rare tree.

Sadly, a few months ago, the park’s neighboors ran a bulldozer through the park, destroying some precious plants. You can read about that here.