The Plants of the Pacific Crest Trail: A Hiker’s Guide to Northern California

Discover and appreciate the flowers, trees, and other plants on the Pacific Crest Trail with this beautiful guide to the American West’s natural wonders.

Quickly find, identify, and learn about the amazing range of plants growing along the Northern California stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s easy with The Plants of the Pacific Crest Trail, organized by type, color, and trail section. You may encounter carnivorous sundews or lilies with petals like butterfly wings. With hundreds of color photos and lively, accessible descriptions, there’s so much you can learn.

Whether you’re enjoying a day hike, exploring with your family, or setting out on the trek of a lifetime, you’ll forge a deeper connection with nature through the beautiful plants on display mile after mile.

Dana York received his M.S. in botany from California State University, Fresno, and his B.S. in forest/natural resource management from Cal Poly Humboldt. For over 30 years, he has worked on floristic and special-status plant species surveys throughout California and Oregon, on both public and private lands, discovering new plant species in the Oregon Cascade, Klamath, and Sierra Nevada ranges. He retired after 25 years as an environmental unit supervisor for the State Department of Transportation and is now a botany research associate with the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. He also teaches botany workshops on the Mojave Desert, Sierra Nevada, and Klamath Mountains. Dana lives with his family in Arcata, California. Follow him on Instagram @pct_botanist.
James M. André, a lifelong Californian, began hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in the late 1970s. While completing his undergraduate and graduate work in plant ecology, taxonomy, conservation botany, and rare plant population biology at UCLA, CSU Humboldt State, and UC Davis, Jim was employed as the Forest Botanist at Inyo National Forest, and since 1994 he has served as Director of the University of California’s Granite Mountains Desert Research Center. Over the years, he has written Floras of the Mojave National Preserve, the Mojave Desert, and the San Bernardino County desert region, and discovered and published several species new to science. He is a strong advocate for native plant conservation, serving as the Senior Advisor to the California Native Plant Society’s Rare Plant Program. He also enjoys also enjoys backpacking, cycling, baseball, beerology, storm-chasing, writing, theater, woodworking, and most of all, hanging out with his family.