By Marcy Axness, TME

This time of year, mountain residents are treated to hillsides painted in purples, yellows and orange, courtesy of Nature’s wildflower airbrush.

In some years it is a riot of color, while in others we see the pastel veils of far more subtle hues.

On April 6 a notice from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sent this alert: “Wildflower season is off to a dry start… The ongoing drought throughout the state has reduced wildflowers on public lands.”

The Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve is just 40 minutes from Frazier Park (east on State Route 138). Between the drought and the unseasonable early April heat, a less-than-lustrous bloom is expected this spring. But patience and sharp eyes led Bonnie Lynn Richwine to an Oz-worthy field of poppies alongside the reserve on April 2, just prior to the temperature’s sudden zoom upward.

Carrizo Plain National Monument is a one-hour-and-20-minute drive west on Hudson Ranch Road from Pine Mountain Club, a world-famous site for wildflower viewing. But this year the BLM says that “due to ongoing dry conditions, the [Carrizo Plain] landscape is currently covered in …(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Traveling around Southern California to photograph wildflowers is an avid springtime hobby for Bonnie Lynn Richwine, of Reseda. She snapped the display above on a dirt road just east of the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve entrance, on April 2, just before 3 p.m., facing southwest.

Joyce Harlan and two friends drove from Los Angeles on April 6 to find this poppy field just west of the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve.

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This is part of the April 15, 2022 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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