Читать книгу Hiking & Backpacking Big Sur. Your complete guide to the trails of Big Sur, Ventana Wilderness, and Silver Peak Wilderness онлайн

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Fossil evidence from the Miocene period (22 million to 6 million years ago) proves the Santa Lucia fir was once widely distributed throughout western North America. During the Miocene, the climate was much warmer and wetter than today, including regular summer rainfall. During the Pliocene period (5.2 to 1.6 million years ago), the climate cooled, leading to the ice ages of the Pleistocene (1.6 million to 11,000 years ago). The Santa Lucia fir could not withstand these colder, drier conditions and thus retreated to milder coastal climates.

Botanist Thomas Coulter first described the Coulter pine in 1832 near Cone Peak. Its enormous, sharp-spurred cones are the heaviest of any pine species. The tree grows in association with canyon live oaks, tanoaks, California bays, and madrones. On the flanks of Junipero Serra Peak, Coulter pines grow alongside stately sugar pines.

A Scottish botanist first described sugar pines in 1831 while climbing Cone Peak. These largest of all pines boast enormous cones that are longer and more slender than the Coulter pine’s cones. Distinct from their Sierra Nevada and Southern California cousins, Big Sur’s sugar pines are restricted to isolated peaks and higher elevation slopes atop Cone and Junipero Serra Peaks.