This relatively small national park about 80 miles south of San Jose typically starts seeing wildflowers in March and is showiest in May, when more than three-quarters of the park’s flowers are in bloom. In late March, the flanks of this summit (about 50 miles northwest of Santa Barbara) and nearby Grass Mountain begin bursting with wild hyacinth, shooting stars, buttercups, milkmaids, Johnny-jump-ups, chocolate lilies, scarlet Indian paintbrush, goldfields, purple fiesta flowers, popcorn flowers, and poppies. Santa Barbara Island also blossoms with lavender chicory and pale-yellow cream cups. San Miguel also is home to lupine and poppies, while Anacapa features vibrant red paintbrush and island morning glory. The rare, butter-yellow soft-leaved Indian paintbrush is endemic to the Channel Islands but only found these days on Santa Rosa Island. On Anacapa, Santa Barbara, and San Miguel Islands, yellow coreopsis can begin blooming in January, usually lasting through March. The five islands that make up this park 25 miles off the Santa Barbara coastline enjoy a breadth of wildflower offerings, and each is unique. On February 2, 2023, the wildflower reports indicated that while the poppies hadn’t yet started blooming, it should be a good year.Īlthough poppies are the showstopper here, also keep your eye out for other wildflowers, such as desert pincushion, blue dicks, California aster, and blue lupine. The largest state park in California (600,000 acres), about 85 miles northeast of San Diego in the Colorado Desert, comes alive during wildflower season with desert marigold, desert lily, sand verbena, desert sunflower, apricot mallow, desert five-spot, Orcutt’s woody aster, and blooming cacti.Īccording to the park’s wildflower hotline (updated February 8, 2023) the park is already seeing impressive blooms, due to late autumn rainfall.Īt this nearly 1,800-acre reserve 75 miles north of Los Angeles, the rolling hills blanketed in poppies can seem to go on forever, beginning in mid-March and sometimes lasting through early May. The park has already updated its website to say it is not expecting a super bloom this year, but visitors can still expect to see a variety of wildflowers throughout the park. “By far most the most numerous during a super bloom is the desert gold, which looks like a gold daisy, so there will be big fields of yellow.” Other flowers include the fragile white “gravel ghost” and purple phacelia.ĭeath Valley National Park did not receive enough early season rains to produce a super bloom in 2020, 2021, or 2022, and it looks like the same is true for 2023. “The most impressive are the blooms at low elevation, because of the contrast between rocks and the flowers,” says Abby Wine, a spokesperson at the park. At higher elevations, above 5,000 feet, visitors will typically see flowers into June and July. Desert wildflowers at lower elevations-including the valley floor at Death Valley-will begin to appear in mid-February and last until mid-April. Without a doubt, the holy grail of California wildflower events is the Mojave Desert “super bloom,” most famously at Death Valley-an event that occurs only every 10 to 15 years (the last two were in 20). Here’s where and when to find wildflowers in California’s national parks and state parks this spring and beyond. It appears that this year will be particularly good for flower spotting ( perhaps as wondrous as the 2019 displays), thanks to a much needed soaking last fall and higher than average snowpack. But then, there must be successive rains, at least once a month, for the flowers to take hold. While drought can suppress the wildflower blooms, significant rain in the state resulted in spectacular super blooms in both 20.īut will there be another super bloom in the state in 2023? For one to occur, it takes a specific confluence of conditions: It starts with significant rainfall in September or October, which rinses a bloom-inhibiting chemical from the seeds. Peak season for any given area can vary somewhat from year to year, based on rainfall amount and temperatures, so it pays to check links to get the most updated information. But there are those who insist that the name-the Golden State-has just as much to do with the California poppy, the delicate yellow-orange state flower that carpets the state each spring from Arcata in the north to San Diego in the south. California’s nickname is traditionally attributed to the rush of 49ers who came panning for treasure.
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