April 16th Hike in Wills Canyon

Wills Canyon Botany Hike
in the Ventura River Preserve (OVLC) in Meiners Oaks

Saturday April 16, 2022
9am – 1pm
Leader: Rick Burgess

Spring time is perfect for a hike up Wills Canyon. This beautiful little canyon is administered by the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy and features a shady oak woodland as well as chaparral, grassland and floodplain scrub. Join botanist Rick Burgess as we stroll through the area and enjoy the many wildflowers found there. It’s a good place to see fairy lanterns (Calochortus albus), California buttercups (Ranunculus californicus), several lupine species, and if we’re lucky, such oddities as Rupert’s scurf-pea (Rupertia physodes) and white-veined coyote mint (Monardella hypoleuca). It’s also a good place to find nesting birds in the woodland.

We will meet at the main Ventura River Preserve trailhead in Meiners Oaks on the west side of Rice Road between Lomita and El Roblar at 9:00 A. M. This is a popular trail and the parking lot often fills up, but there is plenty of parking on Rice Road. Bring water and a snack to eat for lunch. Also bring hiking boots, sunscreen, sunglasses, and a hat. Black flies are out this year, so you may want to bring insect repellent.Face masks are requested, and please don’t attend if you’re not feeling well. Hike ends at 1:00 P.M.

Reserve ahead: Call (805) 794-5334 to RSVP.  Limited to 16 participants.

Directions: From Santa Barbara and Ventura, take the 101 Freeway to Highway 33 and head toward Ojai. Turn left on Highway 150 (Baldwin Road), then right on Rice Road. Several hundred feet past Lomita Avenue, there is a parking lot on the left for OVLC’s Riverview Trailhead.  Park there.