Over the years, I have spent a good deal of time chasing
wildflowers in the Coast Range and the Sierra and learning their
names. Yet, it remains a mystery to me what the mix of winter
weather elements
— rainfall, temperature, dry spells — will mean for the spring
wildflowers. Will this be a good wildflower year or an average
one?
Over the years, I have spent a good deal of time chasing wildflowers in the Coast Range and the Sierra and learning their names. Yet, it remains a mystery to me what the mix of winter weather elements — rainfall, temperature, dry spells — will mean for the spring wildflowers. Will this be a good wildflower year or an average one?
The grandest wildflower displays I have ever seen have been on the hillsides and deserts of Southern California. It will certainly surprise some people that the Mojave Desert — so hot, dry and barren in midsummer — can look like Mardi Gras in early spring. I have read that much of the recent rains in the southland bypassed the coast and fell in the desert. Perhaps this is a good year for a SoCal road trip. Here are a few spots to place on your itinerary.
A classic stop for a truly spectacular wildflower display is just off Interstate Highway 5 at Gorman, a don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it town just over Tejon Pass on the Grapevine. Nature photographers come to Gorman from far and wide to get that oh-my-gosh wildflower shot. Once on the frontage road on the east side of the highway, travel only a few hundred yards further south, then look over your left shoulder. If you hit it right, it’s gang-busters.
Stay on the frontage road until it connects with Highway 138 and turn east. Just like that, you’re in the Mojave Desert. This long, straight stretch of road takes you to Lancaster and the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve, but along the way, turn left onto one of the numbered streets (say 300th Street) that head onto a huge vacant expanse beneath the Tehachapi Mountains. This strange grid of well-graded dirt roads criscrosses an area and can burst with primrose, poppies and gilia.
Work your way back to Highway 138 and continue east toward Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve. This state park has a variety of desert flora, but if you time it right, the expanse of poppies before you would turn Rush Limbaugh into a mute.
I have never seen the spring bloom at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, but it is legendary. At nearly 600,000 acres, it is the only California state park larger than our own Henry Coe State Park. Here, you are on the Colorado Desert, not the Mojave, so the resident plants differ. The park website says the bloom there is just beginning, so time is short. The town of Borrego Springs, with all its motels and conveniences, sits in a pocket of private land surrounded by the park for people looking for comfortable lodging and handy access.
Just northwest of Anza-Borrego is Joshua Tree National Park. Here is where the Mojave and Colorado deserts meet. I have been to Joshua Tree in the spring, and it was spectacular. Purple sand verbena mixed with elegant evening primrose carpeted portions of the desert floor. The long, distinct branches of the Ocotillo radiated from the plant’s base and reached over my head, each one ending in a fiery red blossom. Though you hear about the desert in spring, it is something special to see such luscious life and riotous color amid such desiccation — a contrast to trump all contrasts.
A trip to the southland deserves a place on your bucket list, and this may be a great year. The blooming season in dry habitats is short, and timing is everything. Google will give you alternatives, but www.desertusa.com posts regular wildflower reports for a number of key flower locations.
