West of Mill Creek Summit the Mt. Gleason Road has been closed since the Station Fire of 2009. This area was heavily burned in that fire. Although the road is in perfectly good condition, there are many burned and dead trees along the road that could possibly pose a danger to motorists. The Forest Service currently estimates that approximately 1,700 trees must be removed from along a 12.2 mile section between Mill Creek Summit and Messenger Flats Campground, and that work will perhaps commence on that project next year. Meanwhile my keys to the gate and my administrative pass from the Forest Service allows me to enter this area and access the trailheads and places along the road where the Pacific Crest Trail either crosses or at least is adjacent. The trail itself is not closed and is available for anyone who can reach it, particularly the through hikers who in the spring are travelling north and at this time of the year are southbound for Mexico., some 450 miles away. The elevation at Mill Creek Summit is 4,910' and at Mt. Gleason is 6,520'. The trail particularly in the vicinity of Mt. Gleason right now is quite overgrown with deerbrush, oak and poodle-dog bush, and in places the tread is not in very good shape. I broke this 10-1/2 mile section into several parts and the pictures in this gallery were taken on 10/23, 11/1, 11/6 and 11/11. Naturally at this time of the year there isn't much in bloom, so many of the photos in this gallery show plants that are either dead or dormant, and are included here primarily as a record of what is growing along this section of the trail. An asterisk next to the common name indicates a non-native taxon and the symbol ^ is for a species I had never previously encountered.

Southern mountain woolstar
Eriastrum densifolium ssp. austromontanum
Polemoniaceae

Smoothleaf yerba santa
Eriodictyon trichocalyx var. trichocalyx
Boraginaceae

Northern blue-stemmed keckiella
Keckiella ternata var. septentrionalis
Plantaginaceae
[Named for David Daniels Keck, 1903-1995]

Poodle-dog bush
Eriodictyon parryi
Boraginaceae
[And these pictures show that even in the winter the glandular secretions are still present to cause a serious rash]

California wild buckwheat
Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifolium
Polygonaceae

Frost on the trail