My daughter and I traveled out to the Santa Rosa Plateau this past weekend. What a great time we had! Just getting to spend half of the day with her was fun enough, but adding in the nice quiet scenery and the walk made it a very special day indeed.
The Santa Rosa Plateau is an upland plateau and southeastern extension of the Santa Ana Mountains in Riverside County, southern California. It is bounded by the rapidly growing Inland Empire of cities from Murrieta to the northeast, and Temecula to the southeast.
The Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve preserves approximately 8,400 acres of the plateau, and includes the Moreno and Machado Adobes, Riverside County’s oldest standing structures, and other buildings from the 19th century Mexican land grant Rancho Santa Rosa.
The Santa Rosa Plateau is home to several native plant communities and habitats, including purple needlegrass prairie (Nassella pulchra), California oak woodland (Engelmann Oaks—Quercus engelmannii), Montane Chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and vernal pools, which are increasingly rare in urbanized Southern California.
The Engelmann oak was once widespread throughout the western U.S. Now the farthest north they are found is Pasadena. The Reserve has the only protected, reproducing Engelmanns in the states.
A vernal pool is a shallow depression in the soil which fills up with water during spring rains. Fairy shrimp and other minute crustaceans hatch during this time and lay eggs. These eggs remain dormant during the dry months until the next rainy season allows them to hatch.
I would like to return in the spring after a good rainy season to see it again when it would be much greener. But it is an excellent destination for day hiking and enjoying the quietude of the countryside.
