San Bernardino National Forest

It may have just been all the high country pines, but one of my favorite spots in California was in the San Bernardino Mountains. We spent the day exploring the mountains around Big Bear with botanists from the San Bernardino National Forest and looking at fires, rare plants, mining, and the sets of old Clint Eastwood movies. Here are a few shots from the day.

Ashgray Paintbrush and Kennedy's Buckwheat

Inside the Big Bear Discovery Center

Sulphur Buckwheat and Jeffrey Pine regrow after the Butler Fire burned through in 2007.

Corn Lily

Emma Williams, a botany intern on the San Bernardino National Forest examines grass seeds in a wetland meadow. The meadow was once one of the largest in Southern California but is now mostly covered by Big Bear Lake.

Corn lilies and Indian paintbrush fill a small spring in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Lemon Lily

Wildflowers grow in a "pebble plain," a geologically unique upland meadow. This specific plain was the location for the  1969 Clint Eastwood/Lee Marvin gold-mining musical 'Paint Your Wagon.'