The impetus for this photo gallery was a field trip organized by the San Gabriel Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and led by Cliff McLean and Mickey Long which took place on May 7, 2022. The Bobcat fire which began in September, 2020, and raged across the San Gabriels until December, scorching 115,000 acres, burned across the Devil's Punchbowl and destroyed the Visitor Center there. What resulted from the fire this spring was a floral bloom that was almost unprecedented, a once-in-a-lifetime superbloom that caused me to make the Devil's Punchbowl my go to area for this year. I have made twelve visits there, and plan to continue through the summer and fall assuming there will be days of below 90 degree temperature. The Devil's Punchbowl is a unique 1,310 acre geological and botanical wonderland consisting of a deep tilted sandstone formation situated on the northern slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains and south of the Pearblossom Highway and the Mojave Desert. Because of its location between the mountains and desert, and the elevational difference between a 6374' peak to the south and Big Rock Creek to the north, it harbors hundreds of species, some of which almost certainly remain to be discovered. At the bottom of the Punchbowl flows Punchbowl Creek and the flora of the area is basically a singleleaf pinyon pine woodland with an understory of desert chaparral. A loop trail part of which can be seen at lower left in the above photograph circles around the bottom of the bowl, and there is a 7.5 mile out-and-back trail going to a rock formation that perches high over Holcomb Canyon called the Devil's Chair. The Punchbowl can also be accessed from Big Rock Creek Road via lower Punchbowl and Holcomb Canyons. By the end of June much of the floral display had subsided but this is a destination that is worthwhile anytime, and I highly recommend it. Because the photographs in this gallery were taken during numerous visits over a period of several months, it is an uncommonly long one, but it is my intention for it to represent a pictorial supplement to the flora list that Mickey has been compiling for decades. It may well be added to based on future visits. The adjacent areas include the lower (northern) parts of Punchbowl and Holcomb Canyons, the lower part of the Burkhart Trail going south, the Devil's Chair Trail to the Devil's Chair, and the area along the road beyond the parking lot. I express my gratitude to Mickey, Tom Chester, Cliff and Gabi McLean, and Jonathan Numer, Park Superintendent, for their assistance. Taxonomic changes reflect those currently in the Jepson eflora. An asterisk after the common name is for a non-native species. |
