Carrizo Plain 2023 Super Bloom and Super Swarm

Tremblor Range and Soda Lake, View from Lookout Hill, Aptil 8

Date: March 4 and April 8, 2023

Place: Carrizo Plain National Monument, Paso Robles, California

When the rains came plentiful this past winter I knew this would be a super bloom spring. I also knew that time was short and places were many, and suffered a great deal of FOMO anxiety watching photos of floral carpets posted on the web. I had a nice preview of winter super bloom in Anza Borrego on early January but I didn't want to settle for that trip alone. When the first weekend of March cleared on my calendar I took my camping gear and drove off to Carrizo Plain National Monument, despite knowing that the anticipated super bloom there was at its very beginning.

A month later I convinced my young chika to through a few wildflowers hotspots on the way to her spring break's destination at Mammoth Lakes, and so I was fortunate to see the peak super bloom at Carrizo Plain. Nearly all of the photos here are from my April visit there, but I did incorporate some of my March trip. It is interesting to compare. 

A bloom patch on the way to Carrizo Plain

My chika and I left home on April 8th after lunch and stopped for a lovely afternoon hike at the Pinnacles National Park. That night we slept in Paso Robles and in the morning of April 9th we started east to Carrizo Plain. It normally takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get there from Paso Robles but we took considerably longer because the mountains in between were alight with wildflowers, and I kept pulling over to appreciate and to take photos. 

There was quite a lot of traffic, too. It was a lovely Saturday and the crowds were out and about to see the California super bloom. There were many people driving around and taking photos. What pissed me off was that many of them had entered the blooming fields with complete disregard of the damage they were doing.

I loved the transformation of the mid-coast mountains, an area usually dry and baking in heat, now all green and lush with gorgeous wildflower carpets.

Already at Carrizo Plain, just as we approached the national monument area, I thought I saw a few ponds between the wildflowers near the road. I stopped the car when I realized that these light-blue 'ponds' were also wildflowers - they were patches of baby blue eyes, similar to what I saw earlier on the drive.

The valley floor was like a tapestry of colors. I've been there on a super bloom spring before, and it was different this time. It seemed much more fresh and intense.

 

We entered the monument area and our first destination was Overlook Hill. The lines of cars parked along the road suggested that the little parking lot behind the hill was full. I directed the car there anyway hoping to get lucky and indeed I was. Someone pulled out as I approached and I quickly took the vacated spot.

Fiddleneck mat on the slope of Overlook Hill

It's a short walk up to the overlook point of the hill. I didn't take many photos there because there were so many people all over. On the way up I turned to gaze at the area behind the parking lot - the entire valley floor there was covered with fiddleneck flowers, and there were some purple patches that I knew were Phacelia. 

From the view point I took some landscape photos of the big plain below, of Soda Lake, and of the beautiful Tremblor Range across the valley on the east. Tremblor Range which is usually desert-bare was now all alight in bloom. All the areas between the tall shrubs was yellow as a field of gold. Indeed, these yellow flowers below were mostly goldfields.

Soda Lake, April 8

In comparison I post the photo below that I took from the same spot just a month earlier. Besides the absence of flowers, also evident is the absence of humans. It was much more peaceful then.

Soda Lake, March 4

Some flowers were already blooming by March 4, and it was then that I took this closeup photo of this baby blue eyes. On my April visit there were many more of them but all I wanted was to get away from the crowds that flowed back and forth by us.

Baby Blue Eyes, Nemophila menziesii, March 4

I did want to take the Soda Lake walk though, but I dared not move my car from the precious parking spot I found so I motioned my chika and we walked down the dirt road leading from the back of Overlook Hill to Soda Lake Road. There, right by the road side, bloomed a lovely larkspur. On my last visit they were just beginning to bud out, now they were in full bloom.

Valley Larkspur, Delphonium recurvatum

We crossed Soda Lake Road and joined the stream two-way of people that walked the path to Soda Lake. I took some photos but nearly all of them have too many people in the frame. I focused on the little things instead. 

Caterpillar

I was glad for the opportunity to take closeup photos of the wildflowers that made the vast colorful carpets I saw from up the hill. 

Great Valley Phacelia, Phacelia ciliata

And also those flowers that made only small patches and not big carpets. They were the pretty ornaments on that huge floral quilt of Carrizo Plain. 

Cream Cups, Playstemon californicus

There were many beetles on the trail, many of them crushed, but others were still risking their lives going across the human stream. 

The dirt trail ends by the lake shore and the trail continued on a board walk along the shore. There were already many people on the boardwalk. Me and my chika continued with the human stream. 

I've been several times in Carrizo Plan National Monument, and never before I've seen Soda Lake so full. It looked so benign and beautiful and it was hard to imagine that the water is highly alkaline and bad for drinking. This lake has no outlet from the plain.  

Soda Lake 

The board walk goes over a sensitive habitat area. below was the delicate alkaline soil crust that supports vegetation that evolved to thrive under the harsh conditions of this place. Of course it was hard t think about harsh conditions on a gorgeous day when everything was lush and blooming all around. It was easy to forget how fleeting all this bloom is, here. 

Modern times brought about another type of harsh condition and that's human inconsideration and brazenness. Many people were right inside the flowers in Carrizo Plain as well. Some even stepped off the boardwalk to take so their friends can take their photos sitting and laying in the flowers. They seemed to be completely oblivious or uncaring of the damage they were doing. I felt all the joy of the day draining away from me while agitation set in. I was pissed. 

At one point I found myself yelling at a group of young women that were taking selfies in a patch of flowers, calling them to get back n the boardwalk. They did so, and I saw with disgust the trampled area left behind. Meanwhile my chika walked away. She was uneasy about me engaging with other people. I tried focusing on the flowers but I felt too upset by the people. I caught up with my chika and we resumed our walk. 

Desert Fiddlenech, Amsinckia tessellata

I should say that most of the visitors were well behaved. It's not about just following the rules, it's also using common sense and understanding that the beautiful nature we all came here to see is also highly vulnerable. It's the understanding that our awe at this super bloom phenomenon goes hand in hand with our need to protect it. That when so many people come to visit here, there's really no 'one time selfie' because too many are doing this and the trampling scars on the soil crust last for years. A delicate habitat is easily damaged and takes a long time to recover. 

Soda Lake

We reached the end of the boardwalk where a large group of people were having a small picnic on the single bench that was there and taking turns taking photographs from the edge. I sneaked between them to take a look, then motioned my chika and we turned to go back. We walked in silence, trying to not step on the caterpillars and the beetles that risked the human stampede. 

My chika, who is the least antagonistic person in existence, asked me why I engaged with the people going off trail. Obviously, it did nothing to change the wildflowers trampling situation. I didn't know what to tell her, other than I just got pissed beyond my limit of containment. I was upset still, and wanted to get out of there quickly. 

For he rest of the day we drove around Carrizo Plain National Monument. Although it wasn't a hike per se, I will write about it in my next blog post. There are a lot of interesting things to see and experience in that lovely place. It is better however, not to go there on super bloom spring weekends.