The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is yet another one of those places I had always wanted to visit but could never really find the right timing. At over 2 hours drive away in slightly out of the way Lancaster, it takes a deliberate effort to get to for what amounts to a few dull rolling hills and paths all but a few weeks out of the year. February 2019 was the last time there was an excellent native flower bloom in the Riverside area (including out of control visitation to several natural areas including near Lake Elsinore). In the age of social media hordes I was worried it would be hard to see one of these exceptional flower displays without more people than I could handle trampling all around. With our extreme drought, the lack of local flowers, and the hills here already starting to turn brown, I thought there would be no point this year. I was thus very surprised to stumble upon photos and reports of flowers at the reserve in Antelope Valley. Falling over finals week, a ditch day to see the flowers mid-week (avoiding the bulk of the crowds) seemed like a particularly rare and fortuitous opportunity.
Myself and the rest of the clan would not all fit in one vehicle so I ended up deciding to drive out early to scout the possibility of drone flights over other poppy fields (none allowed above the reserve). Somewhat disappointingly the area surrounding the reserve was comparatively devoid of the solid orange patches seen within the reserve. Much of the land has obviously been tilled at one point or another, depleting seed banks and damaging the fragile soil for the type of wildflower displays that formerly were much more widespread. Though I could have flown a drone straight up into the air just outside the park boundary, that was not quite what I had in mind and so I switched priorities to ground photos.
There were only 7 other cars in the parking lot when I entered at 9am so it was clear we had the right idea going early and mid-week. For starters I worked my way up the Lightning Bolt Trail ridgeline to Kitanemuk Vista, which provided excellent views of the poppy fields below and allowed me to go right past a particularly exceptional display of orange (California Poppy), purple (Lacy Phacelia), and lighter splashes of yellow (Fiddleneck). Side-blotched lizards were everywhere. The occasional clump of beavertail cacti reminded you that you were in a desert. It was difficult to take more than a few steps without instinctively reaching for the camera to capture yet another ephemeral display of color.
I continued a short distance past the trail junction then backtracked and took the connector down the hill. One thing I really appreciated was that almost the entirety of the trails in the preserve contour along the hillsides or follow the ridges, which means they are minimally visible from most vantages limiting the visual pollution. As I walked many of the poppies were slowly opening up, the orange display becoming denser and brighter. No joke, I wish I brought sunglasses to combat the overwhelming brightness. I opted to take the South Loop Trail back towards the parking lot instead of the mid-slope North Loop and think I made the right choice. Looking upslope I got twice the display of flowers than I would from the mid-slope trail. At one point I crossed through one standout patch of bright yellow (Goldfields) in a sea of poppies (frontispiece and below). After this I picked up my pace to meet the others at the interpretive center. Somewhat disappointingly I learned nothing from the interpretative center (more an art gallery and gift shop) and more from the entrance gate brochure. By this point the parking lot was nearly full and I was glad I had my earlier start.
Heather, kids and I then embarked on the South Loop Poppy Trail towards the west end of the park. Here too there was a nice variety of wildflower displays from splotchy to mixed to monochromatic. The kids natural dawdling pace nearly matched my photography pace so it worked out. We looped back over the ridge to the Tehachapi Vista Point, which has some interesting landscape views to the north of rolling hills and the distant windfarms. Back at the now full parking lot, we stopped briefly in the shade of the covered picnic tables before heading out for lunch in Lancaster and the long drive back.
My initial impression was that it was a long way to come to see flowers that I had in my backyard in a good year, but that feeling soon faded as I walked the trails and found the sights captivating at all scales. The ephemeral nature of the display also fascinated me, a natural wonder that never is quite the same day to day, year to year, or millennia to millennia. It was well worth the effort and I was glad to be able to go mid-week with the more manageable crowds.
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| California Poppy - Eschscholzia californica |
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| Lacy Phacelia - Phacelia cryptantha |
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| Pygmy-Leaved Lupine - Lupinus bicolor |
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| Joshua Tree - Yucca brevifolia |
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