California Poppies!

OMG!

Another stop on our journey into the southland was the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve by Lancaster, CA about an hour north of East L.A.. Wow! We saw a lot of wildflowers on the trip but this was absolutely dayglo. My daughter had planned her wedding to coincide with the poppy bloom so we could go out there and now I know why. We hit it right at the peak and had a wonderful time hiking the hills with millions of blooms.

Interspersed with the poppies were lupine, gold fields, phacelia, and daisies of varied types.

The area is a high desert and sage covers many of the hills giving the air a lovely scent.

The preserve has nice, easy trails and picnic area. It tends to be very windy here but the day we went it was just a breeze.

My mother had always wanted to visit Antelope Valley and so this was a wonderful outing for us and she had a dream come true to arrive on the perfect day!

My daughter said the hills looked like they had been colored with a highliter!

I didn’t see a single Antelope though. HaHa

This is a spring place and is barren the rest of the year so the time to visit is March through the beginning of May. Check out their website for information on bloom cycle:

I hope you can go some time too!