California's Carrizo Plain is a remarkable place. It sits just east of the Temblor Range, the long, straight range of mountains marking the path of the San Andreas Fault. During much of the year the Carrizo is a very hot and dry place — you might almost think of it as a desert if you visited in, say, August. It greens up during the latter part of California's winter wet season, and every so often when we experience a very wet year the landscape lights up with vast fields of wildflowers. I was there recently, perhaps a bit before the peak of spring color, but still impressive.
The following photographs are some combination of landscape and wildflower photographs. On the day I arrived there was intermittent rain across the plain, and I set up camp in a shower. Between the dark clouds and the periodic sunny openings the light was dramatic.
Late in the evening I drove across to the base of the Temblor Range — I was probably standing almost directly on the San Andreas when I made this photograph — where colorful wildflowers were starting to cover the hillsides.
My expectation was that the weather would pass overnight, and I expected to wake up to clear skies. I awoke well before dawn and I could see the stars and moon, but as I downed a quick cup of coffee and bowl of cereal in the darkness it looked like the valley below might be covered with fog, as unlikely as that seemed. I packed up and drove out of camp quietly, trying not to disturb the normal people who sleep in. ;-)
Sure enough, as I descended toward the valley and the light started to increase it became clear that the unlikely fog actually was present. I stopped at an overlook and saw mountains to the south that were being over-ridden by drifting fog as the first color came to the sky.
Eventually the fog began to clear as I drove further south, and the light was beautiful — with some unexpected combination of softness and clarity. I stopped to photograph across the plain toward low mountains and the Temblor Range beyond.
I have a Death Valley visit scheduled in the not-too-distant future, and I may make a detour that will take me back through the Carrizo one more time this season.
Thanks, all. #3 is getting a fair amount of buzz elsewhere too, and it is my favorite in the group, photographically speaking. I'm getting a lot of positive response to #2, as well — probably because it shows the flowers well.
I did not go to Antelope Valley this year, and I haven't been there in quite a while. The poppies there can be amazing, indeed... but there are lots of places to find California Golden Poppies in California. (That's the reason it is the state flower!) I have a few spots much closer to where I live that I visit for that.
(This year's stories about the Antelope Valley zoo are off the chart. Yesterday there was a story that someone showed up in a helicopter, set down on the reserve among the flowers, got out and started wandering off-trail, the immediately re-boarded and departed when other visitors tried to photograph them.)
The good news is that you are rarely far from some pretty impressive wildflower displays if you live in California. I know of at least a half dozen great spots within an hour of my home!
Marvelous specially nr 2. I was there few years past. I didn‘t have the rain you have this year. Even so I was quite amazed by the nature. Thanks for showing.
Nice ones. Make me want to go visit. I am mainly a portrait photographer but seeing all these very nice landscapes shots make me interested in shooting them but these kind of shots need more time from work, family, like me old shooting birds days. Hopefully my work schedule improves and I can devote more time.
I was there again for another brief visit earlier this week. If anything, the bloom was even larger by then.
If anyone is planning to chase the low elevation wildflowers of California this year, especially in coastal hills, oak grasslands, or the arid and semi-arid desert regions...
... go now.
We just got back from Death Valley an hour ago. When we arrived last Tuesday there were not many wildflowers, though the vegetation was unusually green after very heavy rains near the start of March. (I had been there right after those rains, too.) But by today wildflowers were starting to pop and fast.
On our route out of the park through Ridgecrest and then south on 14 to 58 we saw tons of wildflowers in places that had shown virtually none four days earlier.
nugeny wrote:
How long do you think it will last. I mean prime time like this. A month? If so I may try to see it again.
The Carrizo is pretty much a "go now or miss it" phenomenon. The California grasslands go from verdant green to dry and brown quite quickly this month. But there are abundant flowers in many places in California right now — mostly lowlands, low hills, and desert areas — that should be peaking in many places for the next week or so.
But... go very soon! (In a month, these particular display will be long gone.)
For example, from a spot along a highway last Monday — and probably nothing like this today...
