Dodder is a parasitic plant that often sort of looks like someone tossed a pile of florescent orange weedwacker string on top of some other plants. The stringy-looking things in your last picture resemble young stems of dodder, but I think they are actually stamens that have fallen from the flowers and become entangled in the leaves. Most species of Mentzelia have extremely long stamens (giving rise to one of their common names, Blazing Star) and leaves that are somewhat sticky (giving rise to another common name for plants in the genus, Stickleaf).
You haven't missed the flowers, by the way, I can see a number of flowers that haven't opened yet in your pictures. Mentzelia flowers open in the evening and close shortly after the sun comes up in the morning, especially on warm days, so if you want to see them in their full glory you need to look at them near sunset or sunrise. Or, if you have a bright full moon, they are pretty spectacular to see at night.
