California Poppy

Spring Wildflower Identification in the Merced River Canyon

I am going to start with a confession: I am a Pinterest addict. Mostly I am in it for the food, which is like my online recipe box, and for the amazing hiking inspiration & tips. If you too have ever used Pinterest’s outdoors section you have probably see this pin:



It’s the Merced River Canyon! Right next to Yosemite National Park, and around corner from us in the Tuolumne River Canyon. It is a beautiful picture, taken on (I believe) the Hite’s Cove Trail. Being that wildflower season has started now I took Curtis, and our dog friend Odie, down there last weekend. We didn’t end up hiking on the Hite’s Cove trail (more about that and where we did hike instead in the next blog post), but did see a TON of wildflowers. And not just the poppies that are featured so grandly in the Pinterest image above.

Today instead of sorting the photos quickly an illogical whim struck me instead. I decided I should put on my (extremely) amateur botanist hat and try naming all the flowers we took a close up of during our trip. This of course took a while. I figured after I did all that work I should share it – creating Beaut-tree.net’s first wildflower guide.

Merced River Canyon Spring Wildflower Guide

Spring Wildflower Guide for Yosemite & the Merced River Canyon

That is 9 whole flowers!: Lupine, Purple Owl’s Clover, Redbud, California Poppy, Blue Dicks, Pretty Face, Common Fiddleneck, Baby Blue Eyes, and the Mariposa Phacelia

For identifying the wildflowers I used Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada, this online wildflower identification guide, this other smaller online guidethe CalPhotos database, and minor googling to try and double check everything… I can’t say I didn’t learn something today!

Check out larger photos of the flowers in the gallery below: