Driving for hours um i mean flowers.

Me and Cricket went up the 5 fwy. over the grapevine and saw this at the bottom.

lupine at grapevine

 

but this was not our destination we had further to drive.we continued to the 166 exit and shot past those agricultural fields and on to the Carrizo Plain National Monument.  We turned off onto a dirt road and came in a back entrance to the monument. There were some road survey crews there along with cows, of course.All the Southern slopes were sprayed various shades of yellow.We drove down along the san andreas fault. The fog clouded the hills a little. The smell was intense. 

soad lake

 

We drove around soda lake then returned back thru the Monument, looking for antelope. but alas saw noneWe came back to L.A. via Ojai. A long twisting road through the mountains.

Fire follower

This is some of bloomage in the  Griffith Park burn areas.

lots of phacelia minor, crypantha, heart-leaved four o’clock, and morning glory

Wildflowers near L.A.

I went on a hike in Wildwood park in Thousand Oaks. Wildwood and several other parks merge to form a large open space, much needed in this land of suburbia. It makes this place so unique and valuable. I was interested in checking on some endemics that grow there. I took Santa Rosa trail which goes over Montclef ridge  I was surprised at how nice and greened up it was. The red and buff  volcanic rock made the prefect backdrop, especially coupled with the blue skys. I saw many of the early spring flowers like shooting stars and blue dicks.I also saw  a lot of stuff just starting to flower. Crypantha, california poppies, phacelia, fiddleneck,chia, wishbone bush, everlasting, gilia,bladder pod, shiny lomatium, buckwheat,lupine, rattlesnake weed, goldfields and some flowers I don’t know. Things are looking good in L.A.

Climate Geek

I have been following the rain totals for California at this website http://www.calclim.dri.edu/

I tried this last year and it seemed to pay off.  Here is the latest.

I have overlayed it on a road map for reference. 

Looks like a couple areas in southern california deserts  might have some  really good blooms.

The area near southern entrance to Joshua Tree, and the mojave near Afton canyon.