This is the third of my Pacific Crest Trail segments and it was through a much drier area than the previous two. I hiked with Jim Adams of the USC School of Pharmacy, co-author of Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West. We began at Little Rock Creek Road, elevation 5320', and ascended slowly to reach the Angeles Crest Highway at Three Points, elevation 5885'. Much of this section is through an area that escaped the ravages of the Station Fire. The trail passes by Sulphur Springs campground, often used by PCT through hikers who are passing this area right about now on their way north to Canada. When asked where they are heading, their invariable answer is 'North.' As has often been the case, I returned to the area once again a few days later to do some more photography and search for the Arctostaphylos parryana that has been vouchered here by Jon Keeley. I repeat that I consider these photo galleries to be a record of the taxa along each segment of the PCT, so if you see photos of species that were displayed in previous galleries, that's the reason. I may also start including an addendum list at the end indicating other taxa that either were seen and not photographed or just not included in the gallery. The symbol ^ next to the common name incicates a taxon that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip. Thanks much to Hartmut Wisch for bug id's, to Mickey Long for the snake id, and to Tom Chester for the identification of the Cryptantha on page 1. The photographs in this gallery were taken 5/14/13 and 5/17/13. The list of species for this segment of the PCT is here.

Yellow paintbrush
Castilleja plagiotoma
Orobanchaceae
[Named for Domingo Castillejo Muñoz, 1744?-1793]

Martin's paintbrush
Castilleja applegatei ssp. martinii
Orobanchaceae
[Named for Elmer Ivan Applegate. 1867-1949]

Clustered blazing star
Mentzelia congesta
Loasaceae
[Named for Christian Mentzel, 1622-1701]

Chaparral yucca, Our Lord's candle
Hesperoyucca whipplei
Agavaceae
[Named for Amiel Weeks Whipple, 1817-1863]

Snow plant
Sarcodes sanguinea
Ericaceae