People are flocking to Lancaster for the first poppy super bloom in four years.
Vast orange blankets cover fields near Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve
After torrential rains in Southern California, poppy watchers predicted that a superbloom of poppies would gloriously appear in the spring at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.
They were pretty close to being right.
There’s a gorgeous, deep, orange blanket of poppies — the California state flower — but dense blooms haven’t appeared in the state natural reserve. Instead, Mother Nature has unfurled her thick blanket of poppies in the flatlands leading to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.
The last superbloom that showed its colors was four years ago, when the dry lands burst with flowers and wildlife.
If you go, according to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve Facebook page, keep in mind that if the rodents and lizards are out, so are snakes. “Don’t doom the bloom,” warns the FB page, with its 46,369 followers. “Stay on the trail and respect the home of the beautiful Mojave green rattlesnake, the world’s most venomous rattlesnake.”
According to officials, the park offers “eight miles of walking trails through desert grassland habitat, and picnic tables with a serene view of the San Gabriel Mountains.”
To find out more about the blooms, their intensity and duration, call the park’s Wildflower Hotline at (661) 724-1180 or visit www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=627 for updates and photos.
