Photo Essay: Dispatches from the Superbloomin' Anza-Borrego Desert

There was one surefire way I could tell that this year's wildflower season was a superbloom.



I saw it from above, as we pulled over from the Montezuma Grade and looked down at the valley floor of Borrego Springs.



And when we got up close to those patches of yellow (mostly desert dandelion), they did not disappoint.



But unlike two years ago, when everything in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park bloomed pretty much all of the same time and blanketed many fields with flowers, this year's superbloom is more of a "growing bloom."



That means we encountered just one really great field during our weekend there (except of course for the poppy-filled Cactus Loop Trail).



But there will be more great fields for those who go after me.



Superbloom or not, I always love this time of year in Anza-Borrego, even despite the crowds that descend upon California's largest state park every year.



The creosote bushes are all abloom in yellow, not having formed their little white puffy balls quite yet.



This year, the sand verbena (Abronia villosa) was particularly showing off in the sandy roadsides (and pretty much everywhere else we looked, too).



And we got some desert chicory (Rafinesquia neomexicana) for some nice white contrast, too.



I told my companion to keep her eyes out for the desert lily (Hesperocallis undulata), since it's so uncommon that I had to go birding on the golf course to see any last year. This year, I saw three.



But even common wildflowers, like the blue phacelia (a.k.a. wild heliotrope, Phacelia distans), are pretty special when you get to see them.



And one of the best places to see them—as well as purple chia sage (Salvia columbariae), whose flower balls hadn't all fully blossomed—was at the Anza-Borrego park visitor center.



During a superbloom, the park headquarters is probably the busiest place of all—if not for its wild landscaping (and blooming barrel cactus), then for its public restrooms, maps, and volunteer-provided information.



So on our second day, we went a little farther off the beaten path and drove down the road that cuts through the Ocotillo Forest and dips between fields of yellow poppies (a.k.a. the Texas Dip).



I've seen—and drip-irrigated—plenty of red ocotillo in my day, but I've never witnessed such a dense concentration of them.



And they all appeared to be green-leafed and blooming red.



Among the desert flora I've ever encountered, I never get sick of red ocotillo.



But I did want to see something new, so we headed farther east on Highway 78 than I've ever been (save for driving through Brawley) to check out Ocotillo Wells.



The area is best-known for its off-roading, but the Discovery Center offers a really nice interpretive trail for plants.



And this time of year, it was full of goldfields and Arizona lupine, among others.



But Ocotillo Wells is also where I could envision the end of the superbloom coming quickly—because that was where we witnessed several caterpillars of the sphinx moth.

And once those start munching away, it's like a death knell for wildflower season.

I'm glad we went when we did.

Related Posts:
Photo Essay: Yellow Poppies Take Over the Cactus Loop Trail in Anza-Borrego
The Worst of the Superbloom, At Walker Canyon
A Desert Reappearance
Photo Essay: Birding Anza-Borrego During the Superbloom
Dispatches from the Butterfly Boom

Photo Essay: Yellow Poppies Take Over the Cactus Loop Trail in Anza-Borrego

Every wildflower bloom may be super, but some are better than others.



And every year's bloom is a moving target—where it was busting out all over the prior year or the year before that may be barren this year (and vice versa).



When I went to check out the "superbloom" in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park this year, my first thought was that it didn't seem as good as two years ago.



And then on a lark, I ended up on the Cactus Loop Trail across from the Tamarisk Grove Campground on the Yaqui Pass—an area I don't think I've ever visited before—and found myself drowning in Parish's poppies (Eschscholzia parishii).



And here we thought we were just going on this hike for the cacti.



The photos don't do the landscape justice. I know everybody says that, but it really was breathtaking.



Maybe it was just the surprise of it.



But watching those yellow poppies flutter in the afternoon desert breeze was just mesmerizing.



We were also treated to purple mat (Nama demissum) amidst the succulents.



The Cactus Loop Trail afforded one of those rare opportunities to be surrounded by wildflowers without having to trample them...



...since the interpretive trail follows a ravine that's lined with them on both sides.



We timed our visit just right—completely by chance, of course—to get the doubly whammy of wildflowers and cactus flowers.



The beavertail and cholla had just begun to sprout buds...



...but the California barrel cactus, with their elongated bodies reaching skyward...



...had already started the show, with yellow blossoms covering their crowns.



Eventually, the wildflower display subsided, as the trail looped around the rocky hillside and began to descend along a deep, floodwater-carved trench.



We were the only hikers we'd seen to go that far. Others had bailed when the trail got really steep and either double-backed the way they came or took a shortcut down the sandy wash.



Thankfully, I'm a completionist—otherwise I wouldn't have come across the fishhook cacti, a new one for me (I think).

But towards the end of the loop, there they were—growing between rocks, reddened with desert varnish, hiding in the shade of larger cacti, starting to bloom like all the others.

I decided to stop hiking for the day at that point. I wanted to end on a high note.

Stay tuned for superbloom dispatches from the rest of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. 

No wildflowers were harmed for this post. 

Related Posts:
The Worst of the Superbloom, At Walker Canyon

A Desert Reappearance

Photo Essay: Birding Anza-Borrego During the Superbloom

Dispatches from the Butterfly Boom

What a Difference a Superbloom Makes

The first time I visited Carrizo Plain National Monument six years ago, it was May, and I'd missed wildflower season by a few weeks.


Circa 2011

It was pretty brown and craggy, and there were barely any tourists to be found.



But this year, I found myself in the thick of a superbloom—and I could barely recognize where I was.


Circa 2011

Though the skies that had once been blue had turned gray for the day...



...everything else looked digitally colorized.


Circa 2011

Six years ago, I'd been lucky to find a couple of blossoms here and there, nestled in the dead grass.



This year, there were so many that I could barely decide where to point my camera.



And, even though it's already April, there are still more to come.



I don't make it up to this area of western Kern County / eastern San Luis Obispo County often, but not because I don't love it.



It's just that, at 164 miles north, it's a pretty big commitment.



There are no services nearby. The closest hotels or motels are over an hour away.



Of course, that's also part of the beauty of this place.



As you head west along the Blue Star Memorial Highway, you see some plots of land for sale between the private ranches...



...but, save for a few dwindling remnants of the oil industry that keeps cities like Bakersfield and Taft afloat, it's largely undeveloped.



And, as you turn down Seven Mile Road to get to the north entrance of Carrizo Plain, the only signs that anybody has laid claim to these lands are a few wooden stakes and a bit of barbed wire.



It's kind of amazing that a bloom this super is still largely undisturbed—unlike the rest of Southern California, which has been trampled by the masses.



And although I visited on an unusually rainy day, I still needed to shield my eyes from the blinding color display.



The densest wildflowers by far could be found along Soda Lake Road by Selby Campground, south of the Goodwin Education Center...



...but you really can't beat the view from the Soda Lake Overlook.



From up there, it really looked as though the valley were some kind of painted canyon.



And, while you'd swear this place is a desert if you were to visit during the summer, a wildflower explosion like this can remind you why it's actually considered a semi-arid grassland.



The Temblor Range of mountains was particularly spectacular, rising above the San Andreas Fault...



...but somehow, I couldn't take my eyes off the lake below, which—though considered a "seasonal" lake—has always been dry every other time I'd seen it.

But it wasn't just wet this time. Its cracked, salt-stained surface was downright submerged. Soda Lake actually looked like... a lake.

It was like an entirely new place to me.

With the rain coming down more heavily, and having seen all the rain-soaked flowers I was going to see, it was time for me to drive the three and a half hours back so I could get home before dark.

I missed last year's superbloom in Death Valley. I'm not going to make that mistake again.

Related Posts:
Offbeat Travels in the Offseason: Carrizo Plain
A Desert Reappearance
Photo Essay: Birding Anza-Borrego During the Superbloom
Springing Forward in Search of Wildflowers