A Long and Worthy Drive Through a Floral Tapestry of Carrizo Plain: Exploration along Elkhorn Road

 

 

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

 

 

While this is primarily a hiking blog I do on occasions white about certain drives (or boat rides). The Elkhorn Road drive is one I've been wanting to write about for a while now, and now the time arrived.  

I started my day breaking camp at the KCL Campground. Anticipating a long day I woke up early, got through my morning routine and left the campground while the other campers were just starting to crawl out of their tents. I turned south on Soda Lake Road, which is the western north-south route of Carrizo Plain National Monument. Almost immediately I stopped because I saw an American kestrel standing atop a pole. From its high vantage point it had a good view of the field below and anything that might be moving there and could turn breakfast. 

American Kestrel

Sixteen miles on Soda Lake Road separate the KCL Campground from the junction with Elkhorn Road. That part of Soda Lake road is packed dirt/gravel  and for the most part I drove as fast as was reasonable to drive on it, hoping to make it quickly to the junction. 

Soda Lake Road

 

I did stop here and there to look at the flower carpets that flanked the road left and right. I wasn't the only one, but being early, there weren't too many other visitors active along the road yet.   

The flower carpets were of plants I've seen already, but it was nonetheless amazing to see the mass bloom effect on the area that looks dreary most time of the year. 

Most of the times I stopped I took my photos from the car window. On some occasions I did step out so I could have a better look and close up photos. 

Black-hair Milkvetch, Astragalus lentiginosus var. nigricalycis

 

Spring bloom looks different from year to year. Some years there's hardly any bloom, but there are differences even between years of good to super bloom springs. On past super bloom springs the Caliente Ridge west of Carrizo Plain was also alight with flower color. This year, I couldn't see much. Of course, I had no idea what was to see on the western slopes of the ridge because I didn't go up there this visit. 

Caliente Ridge

This time I was heading to the eastern side of Carrizo Plain National Monument. After traversing the Elkhorn Hills, Elkhorn Road stretches between the those hills and the Temblor Mountain Range. On past visits this part of the monument proved to be a great place to see unique sights as well as the striking contrast between the arid, stark mountains of summer fall and winter to the floral extravagance of a super bloom spring. 

View east to Elkhorn Hills and the Temblor Range

I reached the junction and turned onto Elkhorn Road. It's funny to label a car drive 'moderate' but when it comes to driving it, the Elkhorn Road isn't what I call a smooth ride. To begin with, it is a dirt road. Not a packed gravel road like the southern part of Soda Lake Road, but actual dirt - shifting, sliding, potholed, and sometimes deeply muddy although it wasn't so on my last visit to the monument. It is also very narrow on its southern part. Too narrow for two vehicles to squeeze past each other, making it necessary for one of them to back up until a wider place is found. Usually it doesn't require a high clearance 4WD car but on some occasions it does. Anyone planning to drive there with a sedan would do good to call ahead and ask about road conditions. Needless to say, there's no cellular reception along most of that road in even if there was, getting towed from there would take a long time and cost an arm and a leg. On the other hand, off-roaders wouldn't find this road much of a challenge. Hence - moderate. 

Bloom on Elkhorn Hills

Going up the Elkhorn Hills on the way east I was treated to a view of the southern part of San Fernando Valley, way down below. Elkhorn Hills' prominence isn't very much but the entire Carrizo Plain National Monument is located within the already raised Diablo Range, adding a significant altitude to the view point I was at. 

View southeast

Once I was on Elkhorn Road, I stopped much more frequently. Still, while crossing the Elkhorn Hills I tried to not leave my car - I was always conscious about blocking the road even though at the time there was no one else there. 

San Joaquin Blazingstar, Mentzelia pectinata

I would pause for a minute and when the dust settled I would roll down my window and take photos of the subject that caught my attention. 

Lacy Phacelia, Phacelia tanacetifolia

For the most part I would stop to photograph wildflowers, but when I saw the horned larks along the road I tried photographing them too. They didn't make it very easy for me. 

Horned Lark

At the highest point of the Elkhorn Road I was treated to a wonderful view of the Temblor Range and the valley below it. The valley, dry and gray most of the year, was dark green. In large area the color was even darker - the Phacelia were blooming there in wide carpets. 

Temblor Range view

On me way down I caught sight of a lovely poppy-covered hillside and I felt compelled to stop and explore it on foot. There was nowhere near that hill where I could park without blocking the road so I continued downhill a bit further and parked by an old corral. There I left the car and went up on foot to explore - I wrote about that walk here. 

Poppy Hill

After my walk I resumed driving down where, at the bottom the road curved to the northwest and I followed along. 

Elkhorn Road

 

 Much of the road side bloom was yellow, but some of the floral carpet along the southern part of the road were of the lacy Phacelia, that is they were purple. 

Temblor Range

Te Elkhorn Hills were intensely blossom-yellow (daisy likely) on their western side. Now that I was east of those hills I saw that the same was true on their eastern side. The white patch below the hills was of creamcups flowers. 

The Temblor Mountains east of the Elkhorn Road were also colorful with bloom. Nearly al that bloom was daisy-yellow, although I didn't get close enough to verify the species.

Temblor Range

It looked like the mountains were wearing their golden crowns for me. Well, not just for me. There were other flower-lovers that were driving on Elkhorn Road by now. Every now and then one would stop (blocking the path) and get out of the vehicle to take photos. As I approached with my car the person would rush back inside and move on, not wanting to block my way. In fact, I stopped at those very same places - the sights were simply too compelling.  

I drove leisurely north, enjoying the floral carpets and the pleasant weather. If not for the dust that my car raised I would have driven with the windows open.  

 

As I mentioned before, most of the floral carpets were daisy yellow, with an occasional patch of creamcups cream. Then I saw another poppy-orange hill with a low ridge, and I started thinking about another place where I could stop the car and go out on an exploration walk. 

It was a good distance past that low-ridge poppy hill that I found such a place - a thin creek line that was painted on both sides with beautiful colors. The road was wide enough so I parked on the side and went out for a second exploration walk, of which I posted here. 

On my previous visit to Carrizo Plain two years ago I saw many desert candle plants blooming on the ridge of the Caliente Mountain Range. Below at the valley I've seen only a few. This time I saw only one single desert candle plant. Naturally, I stopped my car to take a photo of this beauty. 

Desert Candle, Caulanthus inflatus

I moved on northward. The Temblor Mountains seemed a bit lower and darker more north. There were also considerably less bloom on the mountains themselves now, but much more in the fields below them.

I came upon some unique-looking light-blue blossoms and I stopped my drive to take a closer look. These plants were  of the sage genus - a thistle sage, and it was the first time I was seeing these beauties in bloom. 

Thistle Sage, Salvia carduacea

There was a snake on the road. It wasn't the first I saw that day - I have already seen a rattlesnake that was run over to death earlier on my drive. I felt very sorry for it - there was no way it was posing any threat to any human inside a car. This snake however, a non-venomous coachwhip snake was still alive. It was very weak and limp and hardly moved. I didn't see any obvious injury but the poor thing wasn't ok. Knowing it wouldn't survive if left on the road I moved it to the vegetation on the side. I hope it made it. 

San Joaquin Coachwhip Sanke

A white bush stood out on the green and yellow background. I debated with myself whether to stop for it or not. I decided not but then I stopped for another plant so I went back and took a closeup image of the bush. This plant was done blooming and the white fluff covered the developing seeds. 

Winterfat, Krascheninnikovia lanata

The plant I actually stopped for was another species of blazingstar that I saw blooming by the side of the road. I love these pretty star-shaped wildflowers. 

Whitestem Blazingstar, Mentzelia albicaulis

Further north I noticed small patches of pink flowers blooming along the road so I stopped to explore. These were called mallow, but they didn't belong to either the the Malva or the Sidalcea genera. 

Parry's Mallow, Eremalche Parryi

There are two subspecies of Parry's mallow in Carrizo Plain, one of them is considered rare. I didn't know that at the time and didn't look for the defining details, but I did notice differences in the coloration of the flower's sex organs. The differences might be telling of the floral stage (male vs. female).

Parry's Mallow, Eremalche Parryi

There were many other wildflowers blooming in the area of the mallow. Not all of them in large patches or carpets but all were pretty and attractive, even the fairly common ones. 

Chick Lupine, Lupinus microcarpus 

The hillside daisy is one of the carpet forming wildflower species in Carrizo Plain, but here and there I saw them blooming in small bunches, even individuals separated from the greater daisy collective. 

Common Hillside Daisy, Monolopia lanceolata

I spotted one evening primrose plant of a kind similar to those I saw down in Anza Borrego State Park when I visited there in the winter of 2023. These evening primroses also usually grow in larger numbers, but here I saw only one plant. 

Booth's Evening Primrose, Eremothera boothii

Further along Elkhorn Road I was once again driving through a large field of fiddleneck. Here and there the fiddleneck carpet was disrupted by a different color - a patch of a different plant in bloom. 

Arroyo Lupine, Lupinus succulentus

Elkhorn Road climbed on the foothills of the Temblor Mountains, curving west and then northward again. I drove slowly, leap-frogging other wildflower explorers that were there for the same reason as I was - enjoying the most vibrant time of year at Carrizo Plain.  

Common Goldfields, Lasthenia gracilis

Next I was driving through a goldfield of goldfields. These plants are smaller than the hillside daisy and they seem to cover the ground better. From a distance the goldfields patch looks like a river of spilled yellow paint, it is so brilliant. 

Common Goldfields, Lasthenia gracilis

The road curved west again. Descending from the Temblor Range foothills I had a nice view of the alkali Soda Lake. I was now in the north part of the National Monument. 

Soda Lake is an alkali lake. There is no outlet for the water running down the eastern slopes of the Caliente Ridge and the western slopes of the Temblor Range. All the runoff water collects into the valley's lowest point - Soda Lake, and there it evaporates, leaving the salts behind.

Soda Lake

I've done the short hike to Soda Lake several times, and not only during a super bloom spring. In dry years Soda Lake is small but after good winters it widens up and other, more transient ponds and channels form south of the main lake. It was lovely to see the shiny blue water line up the valley floor. 

Soda Lake 

 

After taking a few shots from a nice view point I resumed my drive. I skipped the walk to Wallace Creek where one can see the San Andreas effect on the creek's path. The parking lot there was full and many people were walking up and down the trail. I continued north to the closest connecting road back to Soda Lake Road and drove to the visitor center to have a picnic meal and a quiet rest before starting my long drive back home. It was a short visit this time, but I was very glad that I could make it. I got to see the super bloom too this year. 

Wildflower Walk #2: Exploring A Nameless Creek and A Rare Flower Garden Near Elkhorn Road

 

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

Coordinates: 35.116413, -119.620238

Length: 0.7 mile
Level: easy

 

The drive on Elkhorn Road at Carrizo Plain National Monument merits its own blog post. On my drive I did stop twice for short wildflower walks. I posted about the first one and here I am writing about the second walk I took, about half way through Elkhorn Road. 

There were many places along Elkhorn Road where I stopped to take photos but when I reached that nameless point I was compelled to stay and explore some more on foot. 

At first I just looked around. West of the road was a vast field of bloom - here was definitely a superbloom event.

The most dominant color I saw was the goldfields yellow, but there were large patches of white flowers which I assumed were creamcups.  

The yellow flowers carpet was indeed of goldfields. It is a most fitting name for this wildflower, and I admire this gold much more than I do the actual metal. 

Common Goldfields, Lasthenia gracilis

I brought my gaze down to the road where I saw a large black beetle trying to make it across the dirt. I wished it luck - I have seen some roadkill that day already. 

To the east things looked a bit different. There were lots of flowers there alright, but not the vast carpets that I saw west of the road. Low, chalk-like hills rose before the Temblor Mountains and I decided to walk over there and see what I could find. 

There wasn't any trail to speak of but there seemed to be numerous paths through the bushes and I figured that there would be a creek below the low hills, so I could make my way over there without disturbing the vegetation.

My walk as captured by my GPS 

Right away I saw one of the most interesting plants in that area - the black-hair lockweed, or milkvetch. The field I walked through had many of those milkvetch bushes, many of them were at peak bloom. 

Black-hair Milkvetch, Astragalus lentiginosus var. nigricalycis

I didn't see much wildlife activity around except for a few birds. There were plenty of evidence for wildlife activity though. Burrows with fresh paw prints were numerous . 

The birds that I saw active around me were not easy to photograph. They were small, hyperactive, and kept their distance from me. I did manage to capture one lark sparrow as it perched atop one of the bushes. 

Lark Sparrow

Ahead of me was the slope of the low white hill. The hill was white only where the soil was exposed - the lower slopes were all colored with beautiful spring bloom. I made my cay carefully through a thicket of thigh-high shrubbery, most of which were fiddleneck plants. 

The fiddleneck were blooming but not have not yet reached their peak. When these vast fields of fdiddleneck reach their peak bloom, their lovely orange is so intense it is visible from space. The fiddleneck field was so thick that little else could grow between them. here and there however, I did see some other plants that managed to break the orange stronghold. 

Common Hillside Daisy, Monolopia lanceolata

In that field there other plants in bloom too. One such plant was the white fiesta flower that grew in bush-like clusters in between the fiddleneck.  

White Fiesta Flower, Pholistoma membranaceum

 

At the edge of the fiddleneck field I could see that the blooming carpets covered both sides of the little creek below that hill. There were various shades of cream, yellow and light orange. Of course, there was lots of green too, which is a fleeting sight in this place where winter and spring are so short, and don't even occur every year. 

Nameless Creek

I walked along the edge of the creek, looking for a convenient place to step down. There were lots of creamcups flowers everywhere, in small clusters and also in large patches and mats. 

Creamcups, Platystemon californicus

I looked west in the direction of Elkhorn Road, to where the creek was meeting the road. Alternating patches of the hillside daisies and the creamcups seemed to be 'flowing' downstream in a beautiful palette. 

View west

I looked east and saw that the color flow continued all the way to the Temblor Mountains, including patches of intense orange and a bit of purple too. 

View east

I wanted to explore some more so I stepped into the dry creek and resumed walking upstream. Now that I was on the gravel of the creek bed, I needn't be as careful to not trample anything. 

Understandingly, most of the bloom was outside of the creek. The banks were fairly low and I had a great point of view of the colorful rims of the blooming creek banks. 

Whenever the creek banks rose higher I was treated to the sight of flowers glowing in the sunshine above me. 

Common Hillside Daisy, Monolopia lanceolata

A few steps up the creek I got closer to the purple flowers that I saw earlier from a distance. These were the lacy phacelia that I've seen already on my first walk that day, and also in places along Elkhorn Road. In previous superbloom years these phacelias created huge carpets throughout Carrizo Plain, but this year there seemed to be fewer of them and the plain was dominated by the yellow and orange flowering plants. 

Lacy Phacelia, Phacelia tanacetifolia

Here too, the orange came from the fiddleneck flowers. There were many fiddleneck even inside the creek. It seemed to me that there were more than one fiddleneck species in that area, but I didn't have the knowledge to tell which ones. 

Green Fiddleneck, Amsinckia vernicosa

Flowers weren't the only source of orange color in that nameless creek. Some of the exposed rocks had a bright orange surface. The color could be a sort of weathering patina, since it doesn't seem to be the color of the rock itself. 

Just outside the creek the vegetation was pretty green and I could see little flowers that were almost at my eye level, me being inside the creek. Among these little flowers were the already familiar and quite common red maids. 

Red Maids, Calandrinia menziesii

It was a lovely day, warm and bright. I walked slowly, breathing in the gorgeous spring that surrounded me and every minute or so letting out a huge sneeze because I forgot to pack my allergy medicine. 

Moving up the dry creek was easy and nice. The narrow creek didn't really present any significant obstacles. I decided to follow it as far east as I could. 

While there were no plants growing right at the creek bed, many were growing on its crumbling banks. I spotted a few lupines in one place, most of them were just beginning to bloom. 

Chick Lupine, Lupinus microcarpus

There were also a few chia plants in bloom on the sides of the creek. Chia plants are of the sage genus. This little unassuming plant with its delicate blue blossom has become a hyped nutritional supplement. It had been traditionally used by the native Californians who lived in the area. 

Chia, Salvia columbariae

 

The creek narrowed. I wasn't all that surprised to see that this narrow, partially shaded section was muddy - the moisture retained from the rains that came down there recently. 

I climbed over the creek bank to bypass the mud. It was only that narrow part of the creek that was muddy. around the curve the creek bed was dry again. 

On I went up the creek and soon I was flanked by large, thin-stemmed bushes that grew on both sides of the creek. 

These bushes, the California Jointfir, were also in bloom -their flowers tiny and not very attractive, but numerous. 

California Jointfir, Ephedra californica

There were more fiddleneck flowers up the creek. These fiddleneck plants were of another species, another I had to identify using the iNaturalist App. 

Bristly Fiddleneck, Amsinckia tessellata

Then I came upon some flowers that I've seen earlier that day. Those I've seen earlier however, were still closed while these were more open. They were of a linanthus species that was new to me. It is a species that grows mainly in central-west California and its highest occurrence is in Carrizo Plain. 

Evening Snow, Linanthus dichotomus ssp. dichotomus

The creek continued on eastward and I checked my watch. I wanted to follow the creek more but I figured out that I still had to complete the drive on Elkhorn Road and then I had a four hours drive back home. After some internal dilemma I decided to exit the creek and head back to my car through the alluvial fan field. 

The tall vegetation between me and Elkhorn Road comprised of large fiddleneck clusters, although there were plenty of other shrubs as well. There was enough of a wide passage between the plants and I treaded carefully and lightly. 

I found a mustard -like plant that was blooming between the fiddleneck. It was a California mustard - a native species. 

California Mustard, Caulanthus lasiophyllus 

In between the fiddleneck and the other shrubs were also mats of purple owl's clover. I enjoyed very much seeing them here as well, and there were many of them. 

Purple Owl's Clover, Castileja exserta var. excerta

There was also another species of owl's clover blooming in that alluvial field. These were thinner and lighter than their purple relative, more of a lilac color. 

Short-styled Owl's Clover, Castilleja brevistyla

As I got closer to Elkhorn Road I stopped again by the black-hair milkvetch shrubs that I saw earlier. THis species is also one that is found mainly in this region, and I liked seeing it at peak bloom. 

Black-hair Milkvetch, Astragalus lentiginosus var. nigricalycis

The milkvertch blossom is very beautiful but its freckled pods are even more gorgeous - they look like rare gems. 

Black-hair Milkvetch, Astragalus lentiginosus var. nigricalycis

When I reached my car I turned around and looked once more at those low, flower-covered chalk hills. I wished I had more time to explore them, but now it was time to resume my drive.