David Ellis wrote:

Could someone please tell me the popular name of this
flower, living in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada,
Northern California?

http://ellisisle.com/gallery_4/view_pages/img_2258.htm

It is probably a member of the Compositae, a family which includes
daisies and sunflowers, one of the largest families of flowering plants
with some 25,000 species (roughly 10% of the total number of flowering
plants). Without a look at the leaves identification is totally
impossible.

As a wild guess look up Wyethia (Mules Ears or Mulesear):

http://www.cwnp.org/photopgs/wdoc/wyamplexicaulis.html
http://www.pbase.com/image/29523326
http://www.cnrhome.uidaho.edu/default.aspx?pid=75012
http://extension.usu.edu/rangeplants/forbs/mulesear.htm
http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/photos/b...t_com_342.html
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