Mitchell Rock above the Mitchell Canyon Staging Area.

A sense of the scene in Back Canyon. Busy with colors and textures. No water in the creek.

Ptelea crenulata (hop tree). All of the hop trees -- really shrubs -- are turning yellow. -- And there are lots around the north side of the mountain! A little red PO in the background.

This was taken a little later, from the Meridian Point Trail, but follows on the same idea. That yellow swath on the north-facing fold are hop trees in color. Away from that fold, it's mostly chamise. Eagle Peak in the upper left. The Eagle Peak Trail working its way up the hillside is at the right.

Acer macrophyllum (bigleaf maple). Some of these are turning too, although the situation is mixed. There are still plenty of all-green maples too.

Heteromeles arbuitifolia (toyon) in Back Canyon. Lots of fruit on Mt. Diablo's toyons this year.

Vitis californica (California Wild Grape). Lots of grape vines in Back Canyon and elsewhere on today's hike, but not lots of fruit. I saw grape clusters like this on only two plants.

Helianthus californicus (California sunflower). There was one patch of these in Back Canyon, 10+ feet high! Narrow leaves, really long phyllaries, and the large stature of the plant all support the identification.

Helianthus californicus (California sunflower) leaves up close. I was surprised when I came upon these. Obviously they found a damp spot in this otherwise dry canyon. With water, I gather July and August is their normal bloom time.

Clematis lasiantha (pipestem clematis). It's puffball time for these. Lots of these in Back Canyon too, all with drying leaves.

Kind of a pointillist picture, but the colors down here really are interesting with the brown buckeyes, yellow hop trees, almost blue pines, reddish poison oak, and assorted others. Back Canyon, shortly before the Meridian Point Trail junction.

A vary different palette on the west-facing Meridian Point Trail. This is mostly chamise and black sage. The former is showing its brown seed pods and the latter is slowly losing leaves ... making for a rather monotone composition.

Up on the Meridian Ridge Road now, looking down the other into the Donner Creek valley. It's different yet again. Grass, pines, and oaks of course. The yellower green are the tops of manzanitas.

Umbellularia californica (California bay) in fruit. Meridian Ridge Road. A little PO in fruit is the out-of-focus background too.

Stephanomeria virgata (Rod wirelettuce) near where the Falls Trail crosses the creek above the now-totally-dry falls. Finding these in bloom really says we've arrived in mid-to-late summer.

Epilobium canum (California fuchsia) also near the top of the falls ... well up on a rock face above the trail. Unlike previous weeks, I'm now seeing plants with several flowers out rather than just individual blooms. Another herald of late summer.

Holocarpha heermannii (Heermann's tarweed). These were all over the place on the west-facing slopes traversed by the Falls Trail. A third flag of mid-late summer.

Stachys pycnantha (short spike hedge nettle). Where the Cardinet Oaks Road crosses Donner Creek, there's a little water ... and these were making the most of it. Another summer bloomer.

Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea (blue elderberry), in fruit along the Donner Canyon Road.

Arctostaphylos glauca (big berry manzanita), with its big, now over-ripe, berries. Note how spherical they are. Last week at Las Trampas, the species I was looking at had more ovoid (slightly flattened) berries.

Holodiscus discolor (oceanspray) down in Back Canyon. There was a quite a bit of this in the canyon.