Date: February 4, 2008
Location: Indian Rock in Vista, CA
Local Indian tribe who lead the field trip talks: Luiseño Indians
Link: http://www.csusm.edu/indianrock/

Brief Description:
There were two classes that visited this sacred Indian Rock simultaneously on Monday, February 4th. During the field trip, native plant specialist Greg Rubin took us on a guided tour of the property. Rubin pointed out that the site was originally a oak woodland, featuring chapparal trees. Over the years, weeds were introduced by Eurasian settlement.

Plants located on the Indian Rock property:
- sugar bush
- lemonade berry
- greasewood (also called chamise) which is a hardwood with straight shafts
- toyon (has red berries at Christmastime)
- coastal live oak trees (these acorns were once used for flour and wewish with the Luiseño Indians)
- coyote brush (this bush is a pioneer bush, with features green tiny leaves and tall thin bare sticks)
- elderberry
- white sage (sacred plant in many tribes, used for blessings)
- California sage brush (used for modern medicine)
- royal pestamon (has glossy green leaves)
- bush mallow (colors: grey, pink, lavender)
- oak trees
- monkeyflower (red flowers)
- laurel summac (new leaves are reddish)
- batilla hot poppy (blooms are 10" across)
- bushroo (cirtus plant with small oranges)
- butelon (also called desert mallow, which has velvet leaves)
- lupines (pink flowers sting human skin)
- yucca
- soaproot
- sumac
- snapdragon
- wild cucumber (also called manroot)
- deer weed

My favorite plant (the red monkeyflower, in full bloom):


After studying the plants, the classes sat and listened to the history of the Indian Rock, and the ceremonial coming-of-age events that took place a few hundred years ago. Following that, Steve Friers, a rock art specialist from Riverside County, explained the pictographs along the southwestern side of the rock. He also described the possible dyes used in the pictographs (an iron composite), which have made the pictographs last through the centuries.