San Diego Fires Create Back Country Flower Extravaganza

San Diego Wildflowers

The San Diego Fires of 2007 devastated the San Diego back country. Anything in its path was either destroyed, charred are went up in smoke. I recently stayed at Pio Pico in East County San Diego very close to South Bay San Diego. This area was hit by the Harris Fire in 2007, which burned over 90,000 acres. It started on Harris Ranch, east of Jamul, on October 21, 2007 and was fully contained on October 31st. The Harris Fire killed 10 people, wounded 61 people, destroyed 253 homes, and caused $21,000,000 worth of damage.

During my recent visit to the Pio Pico camp site in Jamul I went on several hikes and was impressed with how fast the San Diego back country has recovered from the fires wrath. This post is a continuation from “Thousand Trails Pio Pico in Jamul San Diego” and the one after this post will have more information on the Pio Pico Campground and my adventures there. This post is specific to the many species of wildflowers in the back country of San Diego County. I’m not a botanist so I can’t name the types of flowers I saw but I can tell you they were beautiful and abundant. I think maybe the fire had something to do with the explosion of color that has covered the fields, valleys, meadows and mountains of San Diego.

Some of the species I saw, after looking them up were; Stinging Lupine, Morning Glory, Lemonade Berry, Wooly Indian Paintbrush, Brush Poppy, California Poppy, San Diego Gilia, Our Lord’s Candle, Blue Dicks, Baby Blue Eyes, Miniature Lupine, Artemisia Pincushion, and many more I can’t identify. This web site has some great information on the San Diego wild flower species. I have been in the San Diego back country many times over many years and I have never seen the woods and fields so filled with colors. The pictures on this post are of some of the flowers I saw in late March 2008 in the Jamul Mountains. Look at my next post in this series for more on the San Diego Pio Pico Campground and the surrounding countryside.

Pio Pico Address 14615 Otay Lakes Rd. Jamul, CA 91935 Phone 619-421-2847 Phone 800-560-8833

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