Driving out in the morning from Mission Viejo to Lake Elsinore mid week, I thought for sure I would have the poppy fields all to myself. I could not have been more wrong. Pulling off the 15 on Lake Street and heading onto Walker Canyon Road I soon found myself in a ‘zoo’. Seemingly all of Los Angeles and Orange County had made the trek out this Wednesday morning – traffic officers were directing cars, cars were backed up all the way into Walker Road – with no outlet and vehicles tightly parked on both sides of the road, vehicles had to drive the entire 1.5 miles and turn around at the end.
By some miracle of the morning, I found a parking spot, squeezing next to one of the porta potties that had thoughtfully been brought in after the crowds descended on this part of town. Soon I heard a helicopter – initially I spotted one but then more arrived, sightseers taking in the fields of orange from the air. None tried to land in the flower fields – although I heard about one that did land the previous day and the pilot ended up running back to the helicopter and taking off just before officials arrived. I walked a bit further and soon I was being buzzed by a drone. Ok, enough. I attempted to leave.
By mid morning, traffic was being allowed to exit (already significantly backed up) – but the road in was closed due to the volume of traffic. Apparently people were having to park long distances away and either walk or be shuttled in.
Fortunately the bloom was not isolated to one area – hills up and down this part of the 15 were covered in colorful flowers. Finding a dirt road I headed up through a canyon past hillsides covered in poppies. One family had brought along their musical instruments and were playing classic music while they stood among the poppies. Continuing further I finally found my own private hillside of flowers and I sat quietly absorbing the beauty.
The hillsides are ablaze! Nature’s painted pastel, an inspirational sea of wild poppies as far as the eye can see in all directions. The only sound I hear is the wind gently blowing. Perhaps this scene is what Antonio Vivaldi had in mind when he was composing his Mandolin Concerti.
Later in the day I drove over to Diamond Valley Lake and visited the Flower Trail. Someone was collecting tickets after about a 1/4 mile in from the trailhead at the boat launch. While packed, there were less people here then at Elsinore – and those on this trail seemed to be more local tourists based on all the licence plate frames listing Hemet as their home town.
Then later in the week it was up to one of my favorite Spring time destinations in the state, Carizzo Plain and Soda Canyon in eastern San Luis Obispo County. This little visited part of the state is a long valley/wide open space that after a winter of plenty of rain comes alive with yellow flowers in the valley and on the hillsides.
No cars lined up in all directions, no ticket takers and no helicopters!
Ok, I need to get to SoCal now!
Wow, looks so beautiful 🙂
Kiye – yea, I’ve never seen so many wildflowers before – one of the exceptional years 🙂
“Continuing further I finally found my own private hillside of flowers and I sat quietly absorbing the beauty” – I am glad to learn that you finally found a spot away from the crazy crowd, squeezing through the wall-to-wall people to get to the sea of flowers is always a buzzkill.
Chin – yes, I quickly realized the most popular flower viewing areas were not for me – luckily many hillsides were covered with flowers and was easy to find several off the beaten path viewing locations 🙂
ticket takers? what the heck!!!
Excellent article, Dave – along with fantastic scenic photos. We love the Spring Season everywhere. Wish we could be with family in Los Angeles, San Diego & Chula Visa but we are enjoying the Spring Season in Tokyo where the ‘cherry blossom season’ is almost done and azalea’s are just staring to bloom everywhere. I’ll forward your article to our California family.
Regards,
M&G
NYC
Abdul – yea, they were really capitalizing on the hordes of people descending onto their normally empty trail. They didn’t make it very clear you needed to bring your ticket with you once you started hiking the first part of the trail.
Michael/Gina – enjoy Tokyo and the remaining blossoms 🙂 Drop me a note next time you are in LA and perhaps we can meet up.
Do you know if there is/was any bloom in Death Valley this Spring? Maybe its getting to hot there now, not sure.
Love your photos. Is the bloom still happening?
Mac – I heard the bloom wasn’t to big at Death Valley this year – and that it was more in the upper elevations if at all. I haven’t been there this year to check it out directly.
Lissa – yes, I just heard from a friend who went out to see it – I think its on the tail end and as the weather starts warming up fast here in SoCal the flowers will wither and die.
Seeing all these poppies reminds me of my own backyard on a much smaller scale! I scattered thousands of poppy seeds years back – and each year they always come back.
Dave, nice piece. Just drove over the Grapevine with my son to check out SoCal colleges. Still some pretty purple lupine and more on hillsides near Fort Tejon. It dates me, but I remember Christo’s art installation up there. As I recall, lovely colorful parasols to mimic the wild flowers
Kevin – thanks for the update – I drove over the Grapevine a few times earlier this year – there was still snow on the hills above the freeway. I heard it was shut a few times during the winter. Driving south, as one starts climbing – the hills to the left of the 5 often are covered in beautiful flowers in early to mid Spring. I did not know Christo also built a temporary art installation – I am familiar with his running fence I think it was called in Marin or Sonoma or both counties decades ago.
Such lovely photographs – we have a nature park where i live and they plant a small field of flowers every year – never seen anything on this scale before though!
I’ve been to a flower park in Thailand before but not yet in Vietnam.
Wow, the flowers here are beautiful. But honestly, even the word beautiful is an understatement.
Hi Agness!
These flower photos are sick Dave! I miss spring in countries like yours with 4 seasons! We don\’t have any of them here in Singapore. I hope to visit US end of this year!!!
Lydia – where in the US will you be visiting?
I haven’t seen that many poppies for about 10 years! Love Spring in So Cal 🙂
Andrea – yep, especially after all the rain we had this year!
Wow. So amazing. The flowers are stunning. Thanks for sharing
Hoan – yea so glad I made the trek out this spring.
Does this occur every year?
John – not to the extent as earlier this year – this time around was really special.
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