2019 desert wildflower bloom

[SSSdave]

Downloaded data via my Mesowest account, formatted it for an Excel sheet, then took a Snipping Tool screen capture per below.

Carrizo-022719.jpg (125.55 KiB) Viewed 266 times

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[SSSdave]

Returned from successful 8 day desert road trip #1 last Sunday 3/10 that was all at Cottonwood Bajada that was at peak. Better flower conditions than in 2008 or 2017, though past peak by now. Been looking at the computer screen slowly post processing enough images for a month of work. Lot of manual focus stack work in Zerene Stacker one display screen at a time at 100% pixels left bottom to right bottom row by row to the top or about 40+ screen fulls for each A6000 frame. The largest image at 6x2 (vertical) frames took about 20 hours to process. Then went skiing a couple days and now back on pc while prepping gear for next desert road trip #2. May look at conditions at Coachella Valley Preserve, S22, Sweeny Pass, Elsinore, Antelope Valley, Carrizo and Shell Creek while just passing through wherever if not worthy. Good time to be retired where every day is Saturday. Likely do Temblor Range on following trip early April.

[freestone]

Today on the Carrizo Plain. The bloom is not prime yet, but the atmosphere certainly was. That’s okay, I’m more into weather than flowers anyway.

[Harlen]

TehipiteTom writes:

...and Carrizo Plain (though I expect peak is a ways away).

You are dead right TT, though we did get into a nice array of yellow asters, orange fiddlenecks, and purple Phacelia. We have been twice so far in March; the photos below are from the last time- March 18. Also saw a golden eagle, a pronghorn, 2 great-horned owls, 4 coyote, and 50 tule elk! Nice place- flowers or not!

[TehipiteTom]

TehipiteTom writes:

...and Carrizo Plain (though I expect peak is a ways away).

You are dead right TT, though we did get into a nice array of yellow asters, orange fiddlenecks, and purple Phacelia. We have been twice so far in March; the photos below are from the last time- March 18. Also saw a golden eagle, a pronghorn, 2 great-horned owls, 4 coyote, and 50 tule elk! Nice place- flowers or not!

Nice! I did a very cursory trip through there on the same day, and didn't find the phacelia, but did discover another beneficial effect of all the rain: actual water in Soda Lake (and other seasonal ponds).

[Harlen]

Those are tremendous photos Tom!
but we can't find your dogs?

[TehipiteTom]

Those are tremendous photos Tom!
but we can't find your dogs?

My dogs? Why, they're in my boots, of course! Where else?

And, thanks!

[SSSdave]

Back home now after 8 days in the deserts on road trip #2. All areas have had only minimal rain now for a few weeks so landscapes are drying. Anza Borrego areas below west side peaks were at peak with badlands areas to the east well past peak drying. The zone with the largest seed bank is about the entrance to Coyote Canyon accessed via the dirt road at the end of Diorgio Road and is best for a mile or so west till the second stream crossing and yes there is water in the creek. That has created numbers of black flies with their itchy bites. Some of the best areas are up the no name short spur canyons that run into the main Coyote Canyon wash. And despite hundreds of SUVs driving up that road each day, very very few venture more than a couple hundred feet from the road. Huge areas of pristine magic where there were no boot prints. Go this week or wait a few years.

Antelope Valley State Poppy Reserve is close to peak and possibly best conditions since 2005. Has taken several years since the annuals seed bank after 2005 was decimated by 2 seasons of fall rains germinating most seeds then droughty late winter that killed the plants. But now it is back with impressive blazing orange hills. Areas north of the reserve that had in fact been more impressive than inside the park are now back to being less so. Midweek, parking lot is filling up by about 10:30am and after that Lancaster road becomes a zoo. Several national news media tv satellite vans in parking lot with reporters interviewing visitors. Poppies didn't begin to open till 9am and then took another couple hours to complete. A good mix of other species adding color like goldfields, bicolor lupine, filaree, cryptantha, fiddleneck, lacy phacelia.

I hiked about 4 to 5 miles on trails. Best area by far is where I went to first, Antelope Butte Trail that is about a mile from the parking lot and out of sight from paved roads, thus ironically also has the least hikers on the trail. The trouble for photographers is that region is notoriously windy that shakes plants. Will suggest looking at wunderground dot com for Lancaster 10-day forecast then choosing dates showing late morning through mid afternoon least light breezes. On Monday afternoon when I arrived, found only light breezes that allowed nailing a half dozen subjects north of the reserve. Then had dead calm about 10:30am Tuesday 3/26 that allowed capturing 3 outstanding subjects before strong breezes rose at 11am. A hill 1/4 miles northwest of the visitor center has a most impressive otherworldy slope of poppies amid goldfields.

[Flamingo]

I enjoyed a trip to Carrizo Plain on Saturday March 23rd. Although it seems the conditions have not yet reached peak bloom, I was nonetheless impressed. We were rewarded with rainbows for braving the rainy conditions.

[maiathebee]

I headed out to Carrizo Plain, Temblor Range, and Antelope Valley last week. Temblor is probably peaking right now, I'd guess based on what I saw when I was out there. Some photos attached below, tons more on my blog:

https://plutoniclove.com/2019/04/06/car ... t-springs/