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 dive 'moderate' but when it comes to driving it, the Elkhorn Road isn't what I cal a smooth ride. To begin with, it is a dirt road. Not a packed gravel road like that 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 squeezed 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 that drive 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 would be, 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, addig 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.