Anyone want to do an Orocopia Mountains Bioblitz?
I thought I'd try this iNat journal thing to see if it might be useful in gathering together people for a bioblitz. For years I've seen this spot of colored rocks in the Orocopia Mountains and wanted to go out there and explore. Both this spot and the broader area around it don't have much in the way of observations on iNat, Calflora, or CCH, so it seems like it would be worth putting some time into a trip or trips out there.
Anyone interested in making a plan to do this? I'm guessing 4x4 is needed to get out there. It might be fun to go for a full week and try to explore a broad area in bunch of different colored rocks. Temperatures are currently a little warm but it might be good to do at least an exploratory trip sometime in the next month or so.
I'm tagging some folks who have been out there or who I think may be interested. Feel free to tag anyone else who might be interested in the comments.
@meljean @cwbarrows @larry-heronema @jprado @sheriff_woody_pct @escapeyourself @swbirder @silversea_starsong @maribellopez @chloe_and_trevor @arbonius @bee_ecology @courtney_m @duncan_bell @margaretgallagher @mariajj @wildgifts @thyde @kueda @jrebman @miguelgrande @dgrimmphd @ronvanderhoff
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Certainly interested, reminds me I need to go again for Euphorbia jaegeri too.
Keep me posted Keir, I could be convinced :)
May not be able to do a full week but interested for the weekend perhaps. Thanks for the tag and keep us posted!
Thanks for the tag. Springtime would better with the greater variety of plants and animals. I believe that peak bloom follows the peak bloom at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
Also, I've only ever driven there in my old Fiat 500c, so a 4 x 4 might not be necessary, depending on the current road conditions.
Please keep me posted
I'm interested! Not for a full week but I'd come out for a couple of days.
Definitely interested, pending dates. Always good to have a reason to head to the desert!
Sounds like a few day or weekend scouting trip may be a good place to start and then going again when the bloom gets going. Does anyone with an interest in going for a scouting trip have any dates they'd like to go? My schedule is currently mostly open.
Interested! And, I like the idea of a scouting trip. Keir, what is the land ownership, re. some collecting?
@miguelgrande Looks like most of the land is BLM with some "State School Lands" and some scattered private inholdings.
I did some bird surveys in this area in 2015. I sent you a long email Keir, I'd like to join for a couple days. Keep me posted. Some roads are ok, some are bad but mostly the OHV folks use the road and carve in ruts, I'm unsure how often they grade.
@keirmorse Hi Keir, Ive actually collected quite a bit in that area. There should be 100's of vouchers of mine on CCH. All that aside, Im sure there are many more things to be found there as its quite unique geologically. I have a rough flora/checklist I put together when I was doing my Astragalus tricarinatus project out there that I can send you so you can keep track of all the things I missed! Also, Pseudorontium cyathiferum still needs to be vouchered out there.
@duncan_bell Aha! I see most of the CCH points are on top of each other so don't look like very many on the map and don't cover most of the area of the map. Either way, we can fill in some of the gaps and find more stuff for you to collect. Any advice on places to camp, etc?
Are we talking the Orocopia Mountains Wilderness area? or beyond? Might we need permits for collecting in the Wilderness area?
@miguelgrande Yep, mostly the wilderness area. I think we would just need a BLM collecting permit. Looking at an old CalBG permit, it includes wilderness areas. I think I'm included on the current CalBG BLM permit as I'm a research associate with the garden.
@duncan_bell recommended coming in from the west side and said he'd get me useful points and a route in. He said 4x4 is needed. If anyone else knows of road conditions going in other ways and/or wants to scout other ways, that could be useful.
FYI, Box Canyon Road was closed last weekend from the North (Joshua Tree National Park) and closed as of today from the South.
Based on what I'm hearing, 4x4 is probably recommended/necessary to get out there, though sounds like there is a slight chance we could get lucky and it would be Fiatable. If I scout it, I'd like to have a second 4x4 vehicle along just to be safe. I'm pretty wimpy about what I'll put my vehicle through though and don't have fancy 4x4 tires. If someone with a 4x4 wants to make a plan to scout with me in November or December, let me know. If someone wants to scout it before me, go for it and let us know what you find.
Interested indeed but will be traveling for the next several months.
Andy Pigniolo and I are planning on poking around the north side of the Orocopias this Saturday and Sunday (Dec. 2-3) if anyone is interested in joining us.
For those that noted interest, @meljean and I just made a plan for the Orocopias the weekend of Jan. 6 with a backup weekend of Jan. 13. I'm game to do both weekends and possibly more depending on interest. We plan to go to the previously mentioned colored rocks coming in from the east, which should be doable with 4x4 but I haven't scouted yet. If everyone is 4x4 capable, we'll probably camp out there. If we have non4x4s, we'll probably camp by the Salton Sea and carpool in each day with 4x4s. If interested, let me know.
Andy and I explored part of the Orocopias a couple weeks ago and, while there wasn't a huge amount flowering, there were some nice patches of flowers here and there. I put most of my plant observations on Calflora but this is what I posted to iNat:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2023-12-02&d2=2023-12-03&place_id=any&project_id=20354&subview=map&user_id=keirmorse
Tagging those who expressed interest before that aren't on my email list (let me know if you want on that): @silversea_starsong @chloe_and_trevor @dgrimmphd @kueda @miguelgrande
I won't be able to join these scouting trips but curious to see what you find!
What is the status on this? I am back from my road trip and available.
A group of us went on Saturday. The road going in from the west side was fine with 4x4 vehicles, though slow driving due to all the bumps. There were a couple small spots where it might be pushing it to not have 4x4 and higher clearance. I'm interested in going back at some point and camping closer to where we want to explore for at least a few days. I don't know if I'd want to commute in from the Salton Sea each day as it took about 1.5 hours to drive the road.
We didn't see many animals and there wasn't a lot flowering yet. So, depending what people want to see, it might be most worth going back after some rains. It was still a lot of fun to hike around the canyons though and many plant taxa can be mapped any time of year. I think it is just a matter of when a group of people would like to get together again. The others may post some observations on iNat from this trip. I mostly just collected points for Calflora, which are linked below if you want to see what we saw and where we went. There are plenty more canyons to explore.
https://www.calflora.org/entry/observ.html#srch=t&obs=keir+morse&before=2024-01-06&after=2024-01-06&cols=b
I currently thinking of maybe heading back around the week of Mar. 4-8 if anyone is interested.
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