Archive 2019 · The Superbloom from Afar

kurt765
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · The Superbloom from Afar

Visiting the superbloom without stepping on a single plant

If you are going to view the wildflowers, what better way than to silently fly over them! With nothing resembling a crowd anywhere near me, I enjoyed the spectacular view of the Walker Canyon area where hordes of people have been trampling the flowers to death from miles away across the valley. Standing on solid plant-free dirt across the valley, I lined up a shot with Lake Elsinore in the foreground, colorful kaleidoscope Estelle Mountain in the middle and Mount Baldy (Mount San Antonio) in the background when this paraglider glided right into my shot. His bright red glider really popped out in front of the hazy layers. What a great joy it must have been to be flying on this day! He was not alone, as several other paragliders and hang gliders were taking to the sky from the Santa Ana Mountains on the other side of the valley near us. For some altitude perspective, I was standing at around 3,000 feet above sea level. The city in the foreground is at around 1,450 feet. Estelle Mountain is 2,767 feet, and Mount Baldy towers above at 10,069 feet with that winter snow that cuts right through the haze. The super bloom here is truly superlative in every respect. When I visited up close back on March 9th, I never left the established trails. I often like the really wide views and didn’t even get super close to any of the flowers preferring those wide grand vistas instead. A few weeks later on this trip I didn’t even want to get up close with all the damage. I was happy that those negative impacts were hidden from view tucked into the canyons from this perspective. Leave no trace!

Edit: Added second image which has the Holy Fire burn area in the foreground. Also, the first image was featured in an article for the San Francisco Gate:
https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/super-bloom-paraglider-hang-glider-Lake-Elsinore-13721377.php?fbclid=IwAR1yP5XWXseXdurxCmvwT6Bnr2k6lYI7eGOijolTlCLfRAmb-6ye8s3fvsA

The Best Way to Visit the Superbloom

With and Without

Edited on Mar 28, 2019 at 12:55 AM · View previous versions

Mar 27, 2019 at 11:05 AM

Prashant Verma
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · The Superbloom from Afar

One of the best super bloom shots I have seen. Thanks for adding details and I agree, "leave no trace!".

Mar 27, 2019 at 02:00 PM

kurt765
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · The Superbloom from Afar

Prashant Verma wrote:
One of the best super bloom shots I have seen. Thanks for adding details and I agree, "leave no trace!".

Thank you! The image ended up being featured today in an article in the San Francisco Gate which was a nice surprise.

It's super fascinating to me that it's gotten a lackluster response in other areas. Maybe I should have dehazed it a lot more (it was quite hazy) for more clicks, but to me it really started looking bizarre if I did that. Just gazing at this view with my eyes was crazy enough.

Mar 28, 2019 at 12:58 AM

bobby350z
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · The Superbloom from Afar

I like the first one.

Apr 05, 2019 at 11:05 AM

jdc562
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · The Superbloom from Afar

After taking lots of photos of previous years' super blooms I was bored with this year's. No place this year seemed to measure up to the previous views, so why take 2nd rate pictures I thought. Then you posted yours. Very unique and beautiful. A fresh perspective. Thanks for sharing.

Another disincentive for my landscape photography this year was all the jerks who blatantly think the blooms are for wrecking. The most recent case was about a week ago. A guy ignored all the signage (and common decency) and drove his 4Runner off road into a very famous bloom. Then he tromped into the lushest part of a bloom area to take selfies with his dog. When I told him that "wasn't cool," he flew into a rage and went into an angry political rant against "intolerant left wingers and vegans who are dividing this country".

All of this is a long-winded way of saying I heartily agree with your views on destruction of the blooms by selfish people and the axiom "Leave no trace."

Apr 05, 2019 at 04:05 PM


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