From the comments section of "10 Places to See Wildflowers in the West/A ‘super bloom’ may be in the eye of the beholder, but the winter’s rain and snow promises a bumper crop of spring blooms in Southern California and Arizona" (NYT).
Do you travel to see wildflowers? How far? Do you go to famous places and accept — and contribute to — the crowds or do you have places you and few others know? If the latter, are these places that other people would travel to if they knew? If yes, are you afraid of Instagrammers and NYT reporters who might make your place popular? If no, are you happy that your place is a step down from what would motivate the mob?
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Hiking rule: Go one mile from parking and lose 85% of people, go 5 miles and lose 95%, go 10 miles and you are in the 1%.
I keep beautiful places to myself. I once took my brother on a hike through the woods to one of them, and he asked me if I knew anymore places like that, and I told him "no, that was the best one."
It's bluebonnet season here in North Texas. And yes, you could say I traveled to see wildflowers.
On the way to the grocery, I turned right onto a small road that borders a field, got out and took in the aromas and sight of paintbrush and bluebonnet in the sunshine.
Then got back in my car and went to Tom Thumb.
I don’t specifically travel to the west to see wildflowers but we have timed trips to family so we see them. That and morel hunting…
Some Hollywood has shown up but they tend to keep to themselves. Some are nice. NYT reporters wouldn’t be caught dead where we go, so good there…
Traveling to see, and walk among, and take pictures of cute babies and dogs playing in, Texas wildflowers is absolutely de rigueur. Blue bonnets are just about peaking right now, and when and where people are going to see them is common conversation.
But there's lots of private land that is made temporarily open to the public for this, or, like the winery an hour and a half away where we like to go for our annual viewing, is always open but not always as busy as it is in spring. I assume, knowing California as well as I do (that is, not as well as I once did but still pretty well), these desert wildflowers are blooming on public lands, probably BLM (the OG BLM, not the parvenus with the masks and all). Maybe this makes a difference.
My in-laws are thinking of going up to the Grapevine to see the flowers (another assumption from me - I'm assuming that's where they're blooming; it usually is) - that's a couple of hours from them.
The flowers we grow in our yard are not the same ones. The public areas of our neighborhood have some wildflower plantings, which is nice; I did get some dog pictures in. Not sure if we'll make it to our usual winery this year, sadly.
“Do you travel to see wildflowers?”
I prefer to have wildflowers travel to see me.
Other than irrigated places reliant on imported Colorado River and Owens Valley water, most of Southern California is covered by bare rocks, bare sand, dead brown weeds, creosote bushes, and a few cactus / Joshua trees.
Greenery and wild flowers are a novelty and a big event...and surely worth it for many locals. The rainfall patterns are similar in Hawaii -- the west sides of the islands are dry and brown while the eastern sides are lush, green, and rainy. Many people stay in dry-area hotels and take day trips to the wet rainforest areas.
I don’t specifically travel to the west to see wildflowers but we have timed trips to family so we see them.
Other seasonal phenomena people make travel plans to see: autumn leaves (there are whole tours, cruises, stuff like that, scheduled around peak leaves). The tulips in the Skagit Valley. Sea turtle babies flooping cutely to the ocean. The Northern Lights (and I presume their southern relatives).
Yes, people travel to see beautiful or interesting seasonal things! Of course we do. I'm thrilled that I can see okay wildflowers a minute from my house and spectacular ones starting half an hour away, but - as I alluded to in my previous comment - we especially enjoy going a little farther, buying a bottle of wine, and enjoying it in the middle of a rainbow.
Yes - I do travel so see wildflowers. (It's called hiking)
In CO -the secret is out. The crowds will arrive. Crested Butte has a famous wild flower festival every July. It is mobbed with people. I do not go.
But there are plenty of other places to see wildflowers. The unique micro-climate of certain areas in high alpine locations produces breath-taking results. The snow-pack, spring rain, and summer monsoon play a large roll in the display each year. Some of the best alpine flowers in CO reside in the Elk mountains. The San Juans come in a close second. But - there are other places...
We are full up - so please visit AZ and CA. Should be good.
It's a big tradition in Texas to have your Easter pictures taken in a field of bluebonnets. You can find published "Bluebonnet Trail Maps" that will show the best routes to take and on weekends, there can be traffic jams on these small back-roads with parked cars and people going off into fields to take pictures. But beware of snakes....
I did have a trip that corresponded with a big bloom recently. But that wasn't the reason for the trip. I did once think of driving down to the Peony vendor in Rock County (I think?) -- they've since gone out of business. Don't recall their name now, and I didn't make the trip.
It was Lady Bird Johnson planted all the bluebonnets.
Ah, yes... the cognoscente traveler, always on the lookout for the experience yet undiscovered by the common American tourist, that icky pest. Time was, the cognoscente traveler was easily identified because he was the only American who owned a beret. The common American tourist goes to Paris, and talks loudly and slowly to the taxi driver, much to the chagrin and amusement of the cognoscente traveler, (Ironic that loudly and slowly is the only way to talk to New York cabbies these days, the legendary Brooklynite driver who knows dees streets like da back my hand being a long-extinct species.) whereas the cognoscente traveler goes to Arles and bikes around rather aimlessly, eating in some of the same dingy cafés frequented by Van Gough, attempting to befriend the locals with his well-rehearsed conversation on agricultural themes, until the common American tourist inevitably discovers there is more to France than high culture and flocks southward like so many noisome geese. Thus the cognoscente traveler moves on, probably to the Dordogne, the Occitanie being already overrun with the mystical subspecies of the common American tourist.
Yes, the common American tourist spoils everything, but mostly he spoils the cognoscente traveler's self-image.
We don't travel to specifically see wildflowers, but if they are within view of our travels, we will stop and admire.
We made the mistake of going to DC for the cherry blossom festival one year. If you want crowds, well, there they are!
When you read about something in the style pages of the NYT do you want to do or buy what you read about? Or do you just think that what you're reading about is just something rich and silly NYT readers do or buy? When you read this article, do you book a flight to the coast, or do you just say "Whatever"? Do you plan to see the flowers on some later vacation or do you put it on your bucket list as something you will never realistically get around to? Of course, the Times does think of itself as a national newspaper, and it does have a global internet following, so maybe articles like this could start a stampede to the wildflowers, but most readers probably won't drop everything and head for the mountains, meadows, and deserts.
In the rare years when the "superblooms" happen in the Mojave Desert, they are truly magical. This could be one of those years, after the historic rains. I remember one year when the Bulgarian artist Cristo, who created fanciful massive open field art works using colorful flowing drape structures, built one of his projects in the hills along the Grapevine. People started coming to photograph what he created, but within weeks the hills were covered in spectacular California golden poppies and purple lupine whose color and scale drew even more photographers than the Cristo work.
Sometimes God shows off, eh, Saint Croix. Pretty tough to match the scale of his canvas and the beauty of his palette.
I have travelled in the past to see such sights. A long-known destination for such travel is the fall leaves turning in the Kawartha Lakes. Driving around rural eastern Ontario can get pretty hazardous in October from all the drivers rubber-necking. And yes, social media has made it a lot worse.
Closer to home, for the past 10 years my street gets over-run with people every spring to watch the Japanese cherry trees bloom in a nearby park. In 1959 the mayor of Tokyo gifted 2000 sakura trees to the city of Toronto. For 50 years they bloomed beautifully, and only us locals noticed and appreciated it. Then, somehow, it got on Instagram and now the cops have to direct traffic for the thousands who show up and trample every other damn flowerbed to gawk at a meadow of pink trees. Park employees have to guard the meadow to stop people who show up with shears and tree saws to chop off branches. It's nuts, a consumer mindset gone mad. So my sympathies are entirely with the commenter.
As for my own secret places, yes: there are only a couple of places left in Toronto where you can get a clear photo of the downtown core without being blocked by the blight of new condo construction. And no, I won't tell you where they are.
"I prefer to have wildflowers travel to see me."
Whoa! That's a neat trick.
In 2019 we traveled from Santa Ana to Hollywood to view my daughter senior project at MGM. It was a good year for wildflowers because the whole way, through the hills, cars were parked along the freeway for miles. The hills were beautiful, but the people wandering the hills were a distraction. For some reason they had to walk through the fields. You could see the meandering trails they made. Ruins the whole effect.
I won't travel for wildflowers, but I have done a day trip specifically for flowers. Took a train (well, two trains because I had to transfer) up from Tokyo to the Ashikaga Flower Park a couple years ago specifically to see their wisteria. About 2.5 hrs each way, although I got a green car seat (a kind of premium seat) so it was pretty comfortable.
Usually, my flower travel is more in the range of maybe half an hour or so one way, for plum blossoms, cherry blossoms, peonies, dahlias, or roses. I've travelled maybe an hour (mostly down to Kamakura) specifically to see various kinds of irises and hydrangeas in the temple gardens. Other flowers, like tulips, are more in the "stop by if I'm in the area" category.
I will travel to be with wild women. IF i want to see flowers, i go the florist.
Spring is the best time to visit the high desert blooms in CA - esp since you're near Pappy + Harriet's.
We do a once a year trip when the viewing is good.
You can check https://www.desertusa.com/wildflo/wildupdates.html for the best blooms. Of course we are retired and looking for a different place to hike than our normal spots. For those of you who want to see them and not drive a couple of hours or days, I recommend DesertUSA and the live feed at http://parks.ca.gov/?page_id=627
The California poppy bloom in the Antelope Valley is generally good to very good. This year it is an amazing must see
Here in the South they seed our highway medians and shoulder areas with wildflowers. It's lovely.
"Do you travel to see wildflowers?"
Just off the top of my head, from living in Washington state, people travel to see tulips, rhododendrons, and cherry blossoms. Japan almost screeches to a halt during the cherry blossom season. It would make sense that people travel to see wildflowers.
My own bucket list includes experiencing a bamboo forest along with Japan's wisteria tunnel.
God forbid those despicable normies, and their icky children, travel to see spectacular, and temporary, occurrences.
At least one California town, which welcomed visitors to see the wildflower blooms in the past, is making it virtually impossible this year. "As spring approaches, Lake Elsinore has a message for visitors: don’t come.... The mayor said the 2019 phenomenon came at a cost that was too high for residents. So, as the poppies start to sprout, California highway patrol has begun saturation patrols of the area to ensure no one sneaks in. The Riverside county sheriff, Chad Bianco, warned that there will be zero tolerance for parking violations and the result could be a citation, a vehicle being towed or worse. 'It is a misdemeanor infraction,' Bianco said, 'and you’re subject to arrest and booking into jail.'"
We have blooming weeds in the backyard; no need to travel.
I’m going to Joshua Tree and Palm Springs next Tuesday. I’m aware of this and plan to take in all I can. I’m hoping the park will be ALIVE!
'I prefer to have wildflowers travel to see me.'
I knew you were really Chuck Norris!!
NIMBY environmentalism.
If you drive to Spring Green from the Madison area to go to American Players Theatre, you turn off of Hwy 14 onto Hwy C. You follow Highway C for about a mile and you would normally keep going straight until the turnoff to APT. But at that mile in, you could turn left and loop around what ends up being the back way to APT. If you do that in July, August, or September, there's a farm there, about a mile up the left turn, where they plant a massive number of zinnias every year. I go out of my way to drive by it 4-5 times a month during those months. I would tell anyone to do this because it's really amazing. Hardly anyone ever even drives by and I wish they would, because clearly this farmer does it to give people a moment of delight.
I wouldn't travel to see wildflowers. I can go down the street to the florist. We have a decent Botanical Gardens that cultivates varieties, and many Nurseries nearby.
I do travel to see "Autumn Flowers" and Fall foliage, because we don't have that anywhere in Southern CA. So, I'm getting something I can't see nearby in Fall traveling. Also, it's more than just leaves, it's the accompanying ambiance---farms, cows, covered bridges, hayrides, Apple Cider, all the trimmings, etc, ----which we don't have in Southern CA either. So, kind of forced to travel to get the full Autumn experience.
Maybe the wildflower people will monetize it, and provide cafes and bridges and carriage rides as an adjunct, and then I'd consider going out of my way.
I'm hoping to get some wildflower sightings in next month when I head for the desert. The locations can be random and can vary. Probably the best bets now are the Antelope Valley outside of Palmdale and Lancaster, or deep into the Anza Borrego Desert. With a lot of snow in many places, some blooms may show up later than normal.
The desert is a very large area. And full of rattlesnakes. Only the edges get trampled. Lots of elevation to provide views. If you can't find a place to look at the wildflowers, you are not trying very hard.
Texas bluebonnets had a good bloom this year. A common sight before Easter is parents photographing well-dressed kids or babies who are plonked down amid the flowers on an interstate highway hillside. Makes for a nice picture.
I like to read stuff like this and must say that I will share this article with my sister during my dc cherry.
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