This will be the final blog post containing information about our March wildflower trip to the Mojave Desert in California. We returned from California again today after a quick trip to the central coast where we photographed the wildflower bloom in that area. On the way, we stopped at the Antelope Poppy Reserve, Carrizo Plain, Santa Rosa Creek Road, and the Santa Ynez hills. I’m only beginning to process those images and they will be the topic of future posts.

This post will include our one-night stopover in Anza-Borrego State Park. It’s tough to cover much ground in one visit when we were in the area for less than 24 hours. Like Joshua Tree National Park, this state park definitely requires a return visit when we can spend more time. Our timing was good. The bloom was magnificent, and the crowds were manageable. We camped on a side road not far from town. They have a great boondocking policy here and we spent a quiet night under the stars surrounded by fields of desert wildflowers.

When we return in future years, we’ll for sure take advantage of the many hiking trails in the surrounding hills. We mostly drove the roads around the town of Borrego Springs and stopped at many popular pullouts. Our hiking consisted mostly of wandering into the hills and looking at the spectacular displays of the many plants in bloom. The area surrounding the visitor center was particularly beautiful. I’ve noticed that flowers in the desert are exceptionally brilliant in color and very aromatic. With a short bloom season, the plants have little time to waste attracting pollinators.

It isn’t possible to see the entire bloom in a single weekend. The flowers come in succession and bloom in waves across the valley floor. One must return again and again to see a complete sampling of its many offerings. These images only represent a sampling of what happened to be in bloom this one weekend. We had bright blue skies on our visit and that made it difficult to capture good images in the afternoon. Photography involves a lot of luck, a lot of hard work, and mostly patience. I had one chance at Anza-Borrego this year. I have no regrets, but I don’t think these images do justice to the great potential of this park.