![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerWildflower Travelog #3
Lancaster CA · Thu, 12 Mar 2026. 1:30pm.
As part of our wildflower trip this... weekend? No, it's kind of midweek. Yay, traveling in retirement!... we're visiting the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Actually it's not just part of our wildflower trip but kind of the main thing we built the trip around... even if we did see better wildflower displays along a random dirt road several miles away this morning and (hint, hint) will see another superior display on another dirt road later today.
The poppy reserve is a state park, so that means paved roads, parking lots, a $10 fee to enter, and a visitors center. We started at the visitors center to get a map of the walking trails and inquire where the best blooms are now.
The visitors center here is low profile, built into the side of the rolling hills here in the high desert. And because it is high desert, yes, those are Joshua trees over on the left side of the photo.
There are multiple loop trails in the park. If you want to walk them all it'd be 20 miles. We stitched together a route the park that hit most of the areas where flowers are blooming and was about 3 miles. That seemed ambitious enough for Hawk having just got the all-clear (and an A+) from her doctor after her foot surgery 6½ weeks ago. Plus, if our energy holds out, we've got anywhere from 2 to 4 more places to visit later today.
We're at probably the height of bloom season this year. The wildflower bloom hits here in March and is weather dependent. The flowers need enough rain in the winter season (Dec-Feb). When the rain stops and the weather gets warm, they start to bloom. The more rain they get before a stretch of consistently warm weather, the bigger the bloom. 2019 was a "superbloom" year because of record (for the high desert) rainfall followed by a gentle spring. When we visited this park in March 2019 the superbloom was riotous. And I don't just mean the flowers were rioting. 😨
The other weather dependency is that when the temperatures get too warm, the flowers burn off. The past several days have been a good amount of warm, with afternoon highs around 75° (24° C). Today it's supposed to hit the low 80s. By next week temperatures will soar into the 90s. That heat will probably cause the flowers to drop their blooms.
But, hey, timing's important. Which is why we're here now. And why we did research, including not just talking to a ranger at the visitors center but also checking other sources, in planning this trip.
Lancaster CA · Thu, 12 Mar 2026. 1:30pm.
As part of our wildflower trip this... weekend? No, it's kind of midweek. Yay, traveling in retirement!... we're visiting the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Actually it's not just part of our wildflower trip but kind of the main thing we built the trip around... even if we did see better wildflower displays along a random dirt road several miles away this morning and (hint, hint) will see another superior display on another dirt road later today.
The poppy reserve is a state park, so that means paved roads, parking lots, a $10 fee to enter, and a visitors center. We started at the visitors center to get a map of the walking trails and inquire where the best blooms are now.
The visitors center here is low profile, built into the side of the rolling hills here in the high desert. And because it is high desert, yes, those are Joshua trees over on the left side of the photo.
There are multiple loop trails in the park. If you want to walk them all it'd be 20 miles. We stitched together a route the park that hit most of the areas where flowers are blooming and was about 3 miles. That seemed ambitious enough for Hawk having just got the all-clear (and an A+) from her doctor after her foot surgery 6½ weeks ago. Plus, if our energy holds out, we've got anywhere from 2 to 4 more places to visit later today.
We're at probably the height of bloom season this year. The wildflower bloom hits here in March and is weather dependent. The flowers need enough rain in the winter season (Dec-Feb). When the rain stops and the weather gets warm, they start to bloom. The more rain they get before a stretch of consistently warm weather, the bigger the bloom. 2019 was a "superbloom" year because of record (for the high desert) rainfall followed by a gentle spring. When we visited this park in March 2019 the superbloom was riotous. And I don't just mean the flowers were rioting. 😨
The other weather dependency is that when the temperatures get too warm, the flowers burn off. The past several days have been a good amount of warm, with afternoon highs around 75° (24° C). Today it's supposed to hit the low 80s. By next week temperatures will soar into the 90s. That heat will probably cause the flowers to drop their blooms.
But, hey, timing's important. Which is why we're here now. And why we did research, including not just talking to a ranger at the visitors center but also checking other sources, in planning this trip.
