SUPER BLOOM

Last Thursday, March 21, I celebrated the beginning of my final 60-something year. We began our journey south with an early morning start to our four day 1229 mile road trip that Lou gifted me for my birthday. Our plan was to join the hoards of tourists viewing the rare wildflower "Super Bloom".

Here is a sneak preview of some of the incredible displays Mother Nature decided to grace us with. These are poppies that blanketed the hills near Lake Elsinore.

Some of the wildflowers next to the visitor center at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

The poppies stretched for miles along Interstate 15. We were creeping along with everyone out to see the "super bloom" in full force. Lou moved into the slow lane, I opened my window & took photo after photo of the poppy-covered hills.

We planned this trip in less than a week as the news stories regarding the "Super Bloom" continued. Apparently, this phenomenon occurs only once every ten years or longer. I kind of figured if I really wanted to see it, we'd better do it now since in another ten years I'll be pushing 80! What the hell???

An internet search turned up this little town of Julian about 60 miles from San Diego. I had never heard of Julian but it had a few places to stay & a few restaurants. Julian was 31 miles from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

This is the dining area & gathering room of the Wikiup Bed & Breakfast just outside of Julian. 

Our room at the Wikiup Bed & Breakfast.

The owners have pet llamas on the property. Guests are encouraged to take a bag of llama treats & feed the llamas. The instant they see you with the white bag, they are ready to eat. This is me feeding Casper.

Lou took a turn feeding Jet a handful of pellet treats.

The following morning after a wonderful breakfast we hit the road to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to experience the amazing display of wildflowers.

As we neared the visitor center of the park, we made several stops to enjoy the scenery. This is an ocotillo that is blooming. Usually when I see them they are just spindly branches with no flowers & a few leaves.

We made it to the visitor center parking lot before the road was closed to prevent gridlock when the parking lot filled up. Then a car backed out right in front of us giving us a great parking space. This blooming cactus & other wildflowers were just outside the visitor center.

Some blooms along the nature trail near the visitor center.

Our first introduction to the fields of wildflowers that were abundant throughout the park.

Everywhere we looked we were bombarded with bursts of color & incredible flowers. I quickly ran out of adjectives to describe the scene.

We planned to hike the 3-mile round trip Palm Canyon Trail which contains one of the most concentrated areas of numerous wildflowers. I'm still working on my hiking ability following hip replacement surgery so I knew this would be a bit of a challenge. What I didn't know was how rocky the trail would be - it definitely increased the challenge for me.

This flower was only about an inch across. It amazes me how many of these small perfect flowers there are in our world. We learned that about ten things have to happen at just the right time - rain, heat, cold but not too cold, dry but with a little moisture, not too much rain - in order to create the perfect conditions for these magnificent "super blooms".

Bighorn sheep are all over the Palm Canyon Trail's rocky mountains. They are difficult to spot unless they move. Another hiker pointed this one out to us & we, in turn, pointed it out to the next hikers. I needed every bit of my zoom lens to snap this picture.

More of the rocky terrain & incredible mountains of the area. And, of course, the brilliant colors that will last another few weeks at most.

We purchased a brochure that named 20 or 30 varieties of wildflowers. I fully intended to figure out what each bloom was called but quickly gave up when I just wanted to take in the sheer beauty of it all. So, I'm not even going to look for the names - just enjoy it all.

Taking time to rest our legs & our souls as we took in the unequaled scenery of the southern California landscapes.

About a mile into the trek & up a few hundred feet of elevation gain over extremely rocky terrain, I found a somewhat shady log & sent Lou out on his own to hike the last 1/2 mile. It turned out great since I started noticing all sorts of tiny flowers as I sat on my log. With my 40X zoom, I started snapping photos.

I noticed this rock with spiral designs as I relaxed & rejuvenated on my log.

This purple bell flower was just barely half an inch across.

It took several tries zooming in on this tiny yellow flower near my feet. It was literally only one quarter of an inch across.

After a few minutes my ability to spot interesting things seemed to improve. This barrel cactus was high up on a hillside across the trail. Once again, I zoomed in & captured it.

These bright yellow flowers were predominate along the trail.

These delicate lavender blooms were each about one half inch wide. Without my extended break, I could easily have missed all of these tiny creations.

I was telling my sister about all the photos I took sitting on a log while Lou headed up the trail. As I explained how many things I saw, she said, "Oh, I know all about looking at things while waiting on logs. I've done it many times while Steve hiked on ahead."

Half an hour of sitting & snapping photos was amazing as I pondered how in the world all of these tiny flowers are born, survive & die in nature. They are here for a few weeks at most, then gone.

Before I knew it Lou had returned. He said it was about half an hour that he was gone but it seemed like just a few minutes as I explored my immediate surroundings.

Following the Palm Canyon hike, we took a scenic drive around Anza-Borrego Park. There are gorgeous metal sculptures created by Ricardo Breceda spread throughout Borrego Springs, a town located right in the middle of the state park.

These detailed sculptures are spread around Borrego Springs, a small town in the middle of the state park.

The grasshopper & the scorpion were way bigger than life. Mr. Breceda has some amazing talent to create these realistic metal masterpieces.

Interestingly, just a few miles away there can be an entirely different array of flowers blooming.

This white flower is one of the larger ones at about two inches across.

These are clusters of the flowers above as they covered the field. There must have been 50 people wandering in the fields, trampling the blooms to get a photo. I wanted to scream at them - the photos from the road were just as good as tromping into the field!

The next morning after yet another fantastic breakfast created by Linda & Lee, the owners of Wikiup we headed to Bakersfield with a stop at the Mount Palomar Observatory. I'm not sure, but I think that observatories & telescopes might be a guy thing since it really doesn't interest me but that's okay. And before any female astronomers write me all up in arms, I know that nothing is only a guy or girl thing.

Mt. Palomar Observatory at the top of Palomar Mountain.

We pulled off the steep mountain road at this lookout on the way down from the observatory. I was surprised to find these rocks covered in graffiti at the lookout. I told Lou I planned to caption this photo "Dumb Ass People".

As we merged onto "the 15" freeway, I wondered why southern Californians always put a "the" before the freeway number. Up here in northern California we just say "take 880" or "get on 5", wouldn't it be weird to say, "I took the 80 to Reno"? Anyway, the poppies along "the 15" were absolutely breathtaking!

After hearing about the huge crowds of people clogging roads & trampling flowers, I can sort of see why. The hills were awash in bright orange poppies. And the locals were out in force along with tourists taking in the magnificent sight. But stay on the damn roads.

Over the course of a few miles with my window open as we inched down the freeway, I took 47 photos of the poppies & that was being conservative - I could have snapped hundreds!

God's display of color & beauty really kind of defies words. Like I mentioned before, I pretty much ran out of adjectives. A heartfelt "Wow!" was probably the best.

We were awestruck at the magnitude of poppies & purple flowers.

We weren't alone in our admiration. The local officials had closed some roads to cars due to the huge crowds. At one point I looked over & saw thousands of people walking on the roads to get a better view of the incredible display.

On a more somber note, after witnessing & being delayed by the remnants of a horrific accident over the grapevine that involved more than 50 cars, we finally reached Bakersfield. There were 20 plus injuries but only one that was critical, a child. A horse had to be cut from a trailer with the jaws of life, but it was fine. The destruction was sobering & unnerving.

In all of our trips down south, we have driven by or through Bakersfield numerous times, but we never stopped & explored the town. The Bakersfield arch was moved from it's original location & the same letters were used to create the new sign.

Buck Owens Crystal Palace is a combination bar/dance hall/restaurant & museum created to honor the iconic country singer, Buck Owens. Although not born in Bakersfield, Buck Owens adopted the town as his own.

Lou finds all these old, kitschy, interesting places for a quick photo stop. This long closed art deco 7-up bottling plant was still standing in the industrial area.

Talk about crazy! This shoe repair shop is in a building shaped like a big shoe. 

The Fox Theater is a beautifully restored Bakersfield landmark.

The entry way into the Fox Theater under its marquee.

The Beale Memorial Clock Tower on the grounds of the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield.

This Chevron oil field on the outskirts of Bakersfield is the third largest in California. It has 9183 active oil wells. I always thought they looked like giant bugs picking in the ground as they moved up & down.

Our final stop was the old downtown area of Bakersfield. This building is the former home of S.H. Kress Department Store. Most cities had a downtown Kress store back in the day which operated from the 1890s through the early 1980s.

The king of the "five & dime stores"was Woolworth's. This old Woolworth's Building now houses an antique mall & the only remaining Woolworth's Luncheonette counter in the country.

Between Kress & Woolworth's we felt as if we were stepping back in time. I vividly recall eating at Woolworth's many times. As late as 1969, I used to eat at the local Woolworth's once every couple weeks with a co-worker.

Of course, we enjoyed a light lunch before hitting the road back home after four great days! The drive home was traffic free & uneventful - always a good thing.