Yucca Firsthand

Our Nature Director shows some campers a Yucca whipplei (chaparral yucca, our Lord's candle, Spanish bayonet, or Quixote yucca) along the camp road. Go on a nature walk with him and he'll show you how you can make your own needle and thread out of this plant!
Learn more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperoyucca_whipplei

Dudley's Lousewort

Pico Blanco Scout Reservation hosts the state-listed rare plant Dudley's Lousewort, Pedicularis dudleyi.

It is found on riverside terraces, especially near Old-Growth Douglas-Fir. Only three small populations exist in the entire world- all in California. These include specific sections of Pescadero Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Arroyo De La Cruz In the South Santa Lucia Mountains, and finally the Little Sure River in the Santa Lucia mountains where Camp Pico Blanco is located.

Additionally, one of the largest patches of it occurs in Pico.

The plant is currently being researched in camp, and scouts visiting camp have the rare opportunity to view and learn about this extremely rare and special plant.

Tiger Lilly on the banks of the Little Sur

I am always a fan of photos of Our Lord's Candle, the flowering stalk of a yucca plant. This was taken in the summer of 2011 near the top of Mount Pico Blanco. The ocean is about 3500' below. Something unique about the northern Santa Lucia Mountains, the range that Pico Blanco lies in, is that it is home to the northernmost yucca, a Southern Californian plant, and the southernmost Coast Redwoods, a Northern Californian plant, making the region botanically Central California. This phenomenon creates a very unique ecosystem in that there are large, open, warm slopes rising above cool redwood canyons.

"Hands On" Reptile and Amphibian Study

Rattlesnake near Lachance Creek

Our Lord's Candle Above the Pacific

Albino Redwood

Our camp is home to an albino redwood tree. I'm pretty sure you can't find one at any other Boy Scout camp. This one was spared by the fire last summer.