Cronan Ranch - May '26 

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Cronan Ranch is located 25 miles south of Auburn on scenic hwy 49. The hiking group has walked here more often in the last few years, because it is closer to home, with a good trail selection. 

On our first visits, Rich brought us to the northern trailhead, and we eventually walked most of those trails, including last year when we tried the trail to Satan's Cesspool (who wouldn't want to see that ?), but, um, we never got there.....

When we came back in November, we parked at the southern lot & enjoyed an extended riverside trail, and some steeper terrain in the hills above, completing about 40% of the trail we returned to today. 

Because we had a lot of rain in northern California, from October to May, the hills remained green, and wildflowers were often found along the paths.   

On the map below, we were on the Gerle and Connector trails and then the Down & Up trail, returning via the Sky Ridge trail to the Magnolia Ranch car park.  

	the map		Owl's clover		us
		poison Hemlock		testing turbidity in Hastings Creek
			Himalayan blackberry, see note 1		Valley Oak
		giant Blue Oak & the South Fork of the American River		< Pinkfairies and Twining brodiaea >
	nonstop ascent from the river to the lunch spot		lunch view, looking upstream towards Coloma
		on the way back		Barb, Cynthia, Marcia & Jean
	Grassnut		south fork at far west of park		spring's greenery continues
		poison oak, see note 2		Golden brodiaea
	Hooker's balsamroot		nearing the car park

note 1 - Himalayan blackberry - online sources say this non-native plant is very invasive & grows throughout the Sierra foothills, out-competing native blackberries.  

note 2 - Poison oak berries - I've never noticed these drupes on a poison oak bush before. While every part of the p.o. plant is toxic to us, birds can eat the berries, unaffected by the rash-causing oils. Bird poop helps the plant spread, and, berries are hardy & can take many years to germinate; this is a tough plant & no doubt out to get us !

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Postscript - We had lunch at the park's high point, where we found a five-person metal bench with a great view. 

In the end we walked at least 6 miles, with about 900 ft. of gain. It was breezy, cool & overcast, a perfect day to be hill walking !  

Plant ID is via Picture This, and AllTrails is used for finding walks.

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