SoCalSights

By Astrid · 5 places

The Desert Blooms for a Few Loud Weeks

A few loud weeks between the rains and the heat

The desert does not bloom politely. It waits out the dry years and then, after a wet winter, it detonates. From mid-February the floor of Anza-Borrego runs purple and yellow, and the window closes fast. I check the rainfall totals in January and clear my March.

  1. Sparse desert wildflowers and cacti dot a sandy, rocky wash under clear morning light, with tall ocotillo stems framing the scene and low mountains stretching across the horizon. The super bloom looks past peak, with only scattered green growth and dried flower stalks left in the open desert.
    1

    Borrego Springs

    Borrego Springs Wildflower Fields

    In a super bloom year the desert lilies and sand verbena run to the horizon. The flowers close in the afternoon heat, so this is a first-light errand, not a detour.

  2. Backlit cholla cacti glow gold along a sandy desert flat, with their fuzzy spines catching the low sun. Dark blue mountain ridges stretch across the background under a clear pale sky.
    2

    Joshua Tree

    Cholla Cactus Garden

    Ten acres of teddy bear cholla that ignite when backlit. In spring the low sun threads the spines with gold while the surrounding basin greens at the edges. Stay on the trail; the barbs are not a metaphor.

  3. Two rust-colored metal camel sculptures stand on a sandy desert flat, one large adult and a smaller one beneath it, with pale mountains and a cloudless blue sky stretching behind them.
    3

    Borrego Springs

    Galleta Meadows Estate Sculptures

    Breceda's iron serpents and mammoths standing in a carpet of spring flowers is one of the stranger sights in California. The rusted metal against fresh color is the photograph.

  4. Golden-hour light washes over steep, jagged desert mountains, turning the ridges a warm orange-red against shadowed slopes dusted with light snow. A sparse foreground of scrub and open desert emphasizes the rugged, remote landscape.
    4

    Yucca Valley

    Pipes Canyon Wilderness

    The transition zone between two deserts, where Joshua trees meet pinyon and juniper. Spring softens the granite outcrops with bloom and you will likely have the wilderness to yourself.

  5. A rocky creek winds through a narrow canyon at the base of rugged, scrub-covered hills, with leafless trees and green shrubs filling the streamside. Pale boulders line the dry slopes, and the distant ridgeline rises under a bright, hazy sky.
    5

    Rancho Cucamonga

    North Etiwanda Preserve

    Poppies and lupine across an alluvial fan with the San Gabriels rising straight behind. Go on a spring morning after rain, when the flowers are fresh and the ridgelines are scrubbed clean.

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