Two weeks ago, Virginia and I made another trip to California. This time we visited the northern edge of the Mojave Desert, Carrizo Plain and then over to the central coast. In this blog post I’m sharing our experience visiting the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. We’ve been to AVPR several times over the last 5-6 years, always hoping to catch a magnificent bloom. Our timing was never quite right in past years. Even two years ago (2017), we saw a less than spectacular bloom. Wildflowers are fickle. I have to constantly watch the online reports, and when the time is right, I drop everything else, pack up the car, and head out on the road. We left our home at 8:30 in the evening and skirted another storm moving across the state. It seems we’re always leaving town in a snowstorm. We overnighted again in Ivins for a brief rest and then left early the next morning. Several years ago, we timed our travel to arrive at the Poppy Reserve at sun up, thinking that would be ideal lighting as the low-angle sunlight swept across the hills of flowers. We didn’t know then that poppies don’t unfurl their delicate petals until activated by the warmth of the sun about midmorning. We were too early in the year in 2017, and though we stuck around a few hours, the bloom was only developing for that season. This year was quite a different experience.

We arrived in the Lancaster area at about noon. I started to feel a little concerned the closer we got. In the past we’ve only encountered a handful of people at the reserve. As soon as poppies appeared along the side of the road, more and more cars were stopped along the roadway. We had heard reports of bad “floral” behavior with this bloom resulting from the swelling storm on social media. Sure enough, we watched countless people walking through the fields and laying in the flowers. By the time we reached the drive to the park, cars were backed up along the roadside. It was an estimated 1-hour wait from the turn-off to the toll booth at the entrance to the reserve. Hordes of visitors were leaving cars outside the park and walking up the lane. There was a very Disneyesque feeling like standing at the front gate of a theme park.

With the pressing crowds, strong winds blowing the flower heads and mid-day light, we decided we didn’t want to fight our way in. We were a little disappointed, but also relieved. From what we could see from the road, it would have been difficult to compose a photograph without framing other visitors in the pictures. A little reluctantly, we got back into the car to continue our drive to Carrizo Plain. Just as we were passing the reserve, I spotted a dirt road that looked to skirt the western boundary of the reserve. With nothing to lose, we turned off the road and drove down a well-graded road. Before long we were at the backside of the park. We could see the lines of people walking along the paths, but to our joy and excitement, the hills beyond were ablaze in brilliant colors of orange and yellow. The further we drove, the further back we left the crowds. We occasionally caught a glimpse of another car in the distance, but for the most part, we had the most magnificent poppy bloom we ever witnessed all to ourselves.

Everywhere we turned were wave upon wave of brilliant color for as far as eye could see. I mentioned to Virginia that when I posted these images, its likely viewers will think I amped up the color in Photoshop. I admitted that it would be hard to believe colors could be this vibrant. I’m happy I have Virginia as my witness that these colors were every bit as vibrant as depicted here. Very little enhancement was done in Photoshop to achieve these results. A little contrast boost, color balancing, and sharpening is all that was needed. What did I learn this year? I needed to wait later in the year, give the poppies time to wake up in the morning, and go beyond the boundary of the park to really see the very best of that area.