The Beaconing Poppies: Wildflower Walk #1 On Elkhorn Road

 

 

 

Date: March 7, 2026
Place: Carrizo Plain National Monument, Paso Robles, California

Coordinates: 35.015441, -119.487055

Length: 0.7 mile
Level: easy

 

 

My night at the KCL Campground at Carrizo Plain National Monument was unexpectedly noisy for a place that is considered to be a remote wilderness. For one thing, my campground neighbors took their time in settling in for the night. Even after that, the Great-horned owl that resided in the nearby eucalyptus tree kept hooting loudly for quite a while. At some point a choir of coyotes joined in the nocturnal serenade. Eventually I did fall into a what I felt was fitful sleep, but out of which I woke surprisingly refreshed and rested. I got my morning routine over quickly, broke camp and left the campground when the other campers were just beginning to get their breakfast ready. My plan for the day was to drive back south to the beginning of Elkhorn Road and take that road north, along the east side of Carrizo Plain National Monument, at the foot of the Tremblor Mountain Range. It was a long day for me. I saw a lot and took a million photos. I also took a couple of short hikes on foot, breaking the long drive. As far as posting here goes, I decided to split the accounts of that day into three: one post for each of the short walks and a third one for the drive itself. 

The first post is about the walk I did to a lovely poppy patch on a hillside and back, most of it on the Elkhorn Road.  

My hike as captured by my GPS

From the junction where Elkhorn Road splits off from Soda Lake Road it transcends over the Elkhorn Ridge (a beautiful formation of the San Andreas Fault) before turning north below the Tremblor Range. Elkhorn Road isn't paved at any point throughout its length, and for the most part it is a single lane dirt path that can fit only a single car, and it is a two-way road. While descending east from the Elkhorn Ridge I noticed a beautiful hillside orange with poppies. The California poppy superbloom displays occur in many places in Southern California but poppies aren't as prevalent in Carrizo Plain - the superbloom display there is of mostly different species. In fact, this patch was the first of only a few poppy displays that I saw in the monument that day. 

There was no way I could stop and leave the car near that hill - the road was simply too narrow, and without any shoulders. I continued driving down to a small valley where I saw an old corral made of rotting wood. The road was narrow there too but the sides were flat enough so I pulled over and parked just off the road, took my camera and started up the road on foot. 

For the time being I was alone on that road. The hills all around me were completely green, and most of that green of invasive grasses that settled in California with the introduced cattle and cattle grazing. 

Elkhorn Road, view south west

I made it quickly to the hill with the poppy-orange slope and saw that I wasn't the first one to have found it attractive - a narrow foot path was leading from Elkhorn Road to the bottom of the hill. I followed that path. As I made my first steps I noticed that the hills in the background had yellow floral mats on their slopes. 

Right of the road, at the bottom of the slope were a few purple owl's clover. I've already seen plenty of these beauties yesterday on my Los Padres National Forest exploration hike, but I was happy to see them again within the National Monument. 

Purple Owl's Clover, Castilleja exserta var. exserta

A few steps got me closer to the poppies. Most of them bloomed to high for me to look at closely, but made a lovely mat cover of vibrant orange. 

Lemmon's Poppy, Eschscholzia lemmonii var. lemmonii, endemic

A couple of steps more up that little path brought me to where some of the poppies were blooming at the base of the slope. I took the chance to take a few close up photos. I was sure at the time that I was looking at California poppies but to my surprise when I sent the photos for identification they came back as Lemmon's poppies - a different species, a California endemic species with a much smaller range. 

Lemmon's Poppy, Eschscholzia lemmonii var. lemmonii, endemic

The path disappeared into a small dry creek that was choked with dry tumbleweed bushes and flanked by tall weeds. Among the weeds were purple flowers - the lacy phacelia that forms the purple part of the color superbloom carpets of Carrizo Plain.

Lacy Phacelia, Phacelia tanacetifolia

The phacelia bloom hasn't peaked yet in this part of the monument. The budding inflorescences looked very beautiful even before maturing the flowers. They reminded me of starfish. 

Lacy Phacelia, Phacelia tanacetifolia

I looked up at the hillside and wondered if there was an way up there. I didn't want to go on that slope itself - not only was it pretty steep but I also didn't want to cause any damage to that gorgeous spring display.

The upper part of the creek was choked with dry tumbleweed bushes that were trapped there since I don't know when. I decided to stop there and turn back to Elkhorn Road. 

Many different plants have the common name of popcornflowers, and all are small and look similar to one another. Telling popcornflowers apart is quite a challenge so it is one I leave to the experts of iNaturalist. One of those that I found is, apparently, endemic and quite rare. 

Pointed Cryptantha, Cryptantha muricata var. clokeyi, endemic, rare

As I made my way back to Elkhorn Road I paid attention to some of the other wildflowers that were blooming between the poppies.  

Snake's Head, Malacothrix coulteri

When I got back to Elkhorn Road I remembered that just a little before I drove past that creek below the poppy hill I noticed a clamp of creamcups flowers so I continued uphill a bit on the road until I found them. 

Creamcups, Platystemon californicus

After appreciating the creamcups I looked up and west again, at the poppy hill and the hills of Elkhorn Ridge right behind it, their steep slopes covered with lovely yellow blooms. 

I then turned my attention to the east. There was more of the Elkhorn Rodge to cross but beyond it on the east were the mountains of the Tremblor Range. I could see some patches of color there, but it wasn't the intense display that I've seen there in previous superbloom years. 

Tremblor Range

Working my way down Elkhorn Road back to where I was parked I paid a closer attention to the wildflowers that bloomed in between the grass that covered the area flanking the road. On the curb were more popcornflowers, of a different species this time. 

Arizona Popcornflower, Plagiobothrys arizonicus

A car came from behind me, forcing me to climb on the crumbling curb. Then another car came from the other direction, and I watched them doing the dance of swerving sideways trying to pass the same spot together and failing that, deciding which car would be backing up to the nearest widening to make room for the other to pass. The description sounds cumbersome but the whole thing lasted about half a minute. Then the dust settled and once again I had the road to myself. 

Elkhorn Road

I passed a lower hill with a purple slope which was a thick carpet of purple owl's clover. The Owl's clover has no relations with real clovers. It might have some resemblence to clover inflorescences but where did the owl in the name come from? I'm don't know how this plant got its name. 

Purple Owl's Clover, Castilleja exserta

The most common orange-colored flower in Carrizo Plain (and in many other places) isn't the poppy but the fiddleneck. Lots of fiddleneck plants were blooming in between the gasses. They too haven't peaked yet. At the time I had plans of returning to Carrizo Plain in April with friends so I was glad to see that the early bloom onset didn't necessarily mean that the bloom will be done sooner too. 

Bristly Fiddleneck (Devil's Lettuce), Amsinckia tessellata

There were other wildflowers between the grasses: the invasive stork's bill probably being the most common one. It is also one of the earliest bloomers as well. 

Redstem Stork's Bill, Erodium cicutarium, non-native, invasive

Then there were tumblemustards. They weren't as prevalent as the stork's bill but there were quite a few of them blooming there. 

 Tumble Mustard, Sisymbrium altissimum, Non-native

Across the rad from the old corral was a low hill with a clamp of bushes. When I set to the poppy hill I didn't pay too much attention to these bushes but now on my way back I did. They were all covered in lovely blue flowers. 

Seeing no other native wildflowers in the way I cut directly to that clamp of bushes. These were all blue witch - a native solanum plant. 

Blue Witch Nightshade, Solanum umbelliferum

From that view point I could see a different stretch of the Tremblor Range and saw that yellow wildflower carpets did cover quite a bit of its steep slopes. There was certainly a lot of spring activity going on over there.  

I descended slowly toward the corral and my car. On the way was a stray tumbleweed bush. This plant has a genius way of dispersing its seeds in a high-wind area - after maturing its seeds the entire plant dries out and detaches from the root. Having a round shape it rolls in the wind, releasing its seeds as it goes. Often they accumulate in the bottom of creeks where they get trapped, but this one seemed to have found its resting spot right there on the exposed pasture. 

Tumbleweed

Back on the road another car came by. It was a pickup full of happy people who promptly informed me that up ahead was a large red-tailed hawk just waiting for someone with a camera like mine to take its photos. I thanked them and told them about the poppy hill just around the curve. 

Elkhorn Road view east

I got into my car and resumed my drive. The hawk didn't bother to wait for me but I did get to see quite a lot more wildflowers and some other interesting things. More coming on the next blog post.