Posted by Michael Hansen on February 27, 2008 at 1:45 AM
This is in the lower foothills just 6 miles north of my home (east of Strathmore) I haven't seen this many Poppies so close to home in many years. Looks like it's going to be a great year for wildflowers!!!
Yeah! Now, that's the spring I was hoping for, but I didn't expect it during the winter. Great news......
Posted by Eric A. Rosen on February 27, 2008 at 3:33 PM
Holy moly!! I should make a road trip up there this weekend... Very nice...
Posted by Harley Goldman on February 27, 2008 at 7:23 PM
That looks great! Hope it holds for the whole state this year. Last year was kind of dismal.
Posted by Lon Overacker on February 27, 2008 at 8:29 PM
Michael,
That looks great! Very encouraging sign for this years display.
I had to look up Strathmore on Google since I never hear of it. Bode's well for all the other areas in So Cal, and I'm sure up hear in Nor Cal as well. Guess the problem is going to be, which way to go?
I was thinking of hitting the orchards in the central valley this weekend...
Michael, this looks very much like the hills off the 15 freeway near Lake Elsinore. Whenever there are good rain years in that area, the wildflowers line the hills nicely. I was passing there today and saw that the growth had really taken hold. I suspect this might also mean Anza Borrego might be getting populated by now too.
Posted by David Senesac on March 3, 2008 at 11:51 AM
Michael, I just drove by those areas yesterday Sunday on my drive home from a 6-day road trip down about Joshua Tree (28 sheets). I had wanted to work some of the orchard blossom areas of Fresno but found so much foothill wildflower material that side tracked me futher south in Kern County, that by time I got up there it was too late in the day. Note for photographer's, ongoing is an event with a blossom trail road tour map put on by the Greater Fresno Area Chamber Blossom Committee, http://www.driveblossomtrail.com, as the orchards are peaking now.
After exposing 6 sheets of film on backroads above the oilfields north of Bakersfield, I then got the idea while driving further north to try and find an orchard near the foothill edge where I might get such hills in the near background. No luck because all the ochards I found near foothills were of course oranges that aren't blooming yet. And most of the orange flowers one will see (like those in the background of Michael's pic) are not poppies but rather fiddleneck. Orange fiddleneck are just going nuts over vast areas along with white meadowfoam.
Southern Sierra foothill areas south of the main lower Kern River have been too droughty and don't look like much will happen. For instance the SR223/SR58 areas above Arvin towards Tehachipi looked relatively dry. But as one moves further north from Bakersfield, suddenly the grasses and foothill wildflowers explode. I think that is reflected in the much above normal precipitation higher up in the Kaweah Basin. Areas south of that line over much of Kern County seemed drier. For a roadside drive, I would recommend any of the oilfield backroads north of Bakersfield into the lower foothills. Those areas are a gorgeous green now, with larged mottled patches of fiddleneck, meadow foam, yellow mustard. Also some dense colored areas of purple phacelia. goldfields, filaree, and poppies. Generally stay below about 1,000 feet of elevation as higher foothills are just green still. Also a list of other less prominent species like blue dicks and redmaids mixed in with the above. Areas further north of Porterville into Fresno County are mostly too populated in the foothill areas to get strutctures out of frames.
Note almost all the foothill areas are private property. Thus unless one knows otherwise, we are confined to shooting behind barbed wire. So don't give we photographer's a bad name by crossing fences as ranchers and other rural locals in particular tend to really hate that. And please always park FULLY off the pavement whenever stopping along roads even if that means one might have to walk a bit back down a road from an adequate pullout to get to a spot. Simply know the law. So often I see obnoxious obviously ignorant people pulling off along typically narrow backroads with tires out over the road pavement possing a hazzard.
I'll post more on my website after some processing. ...David
Discussion
6 repliesThat looks great! Very encouraging sign for this years display.
I had to look up Strathmore on Google since I never hear of it. Bode's well for all the other areas in So Cal, and I'm sure up hear in Nor Cal as well. Guess the problem is going to be, which way to go?
I was thinking of hitting the orchards in the central valley this weekend...
Lon
After exposing 6 sheets of film on backroads above the oilfields north of Bakersfield, I then got the idea while driving further north to try and find an orchard near the foothill edge where I might get such hills in the near background. No luck because all the ochards I found near foothills were of course oranges that aren't blooming yet. And most of the orange flowers one will see (like those in the background of Michael's pic) are not poppies but rather fiddleneck. Orange fiddleneck are just going nuts over vast areas along with white meadowfoam.
Southern Sierra foothill areas south of the main lower Kern River have been too droughty and don't look like much will happen. For instance the SR223/SR58 areas above Arvin towards Tehachipi looked relatively dry. But as one moves further north from Bakersfield, suddenly the grasses and foothill wildflowers explode. I think that is reflected in the much above normal precipitation higher up in the Kaweah Basin. Areas south of that line over much of Kern County seemed drier. For a roadside drive, I would recommend any of the oilfield backroads north of Bakersfield into the lower foothills. Those areas are a gorgeous green now, with larged mottled patches of fiddleneck, meadow foam, yellow mustard. Also some dense colored areas of purple phacelia. goldfields, filaree, and poppies. Generally stay below about 1,000 feet of elevation as higher foothills are just green still. Also a list of other less prominent species like blue dicks and redmaids mixed in with the above. Areas further north of Porterville into Fresno County are mostly too populated in the foothill areas to get strutctures out of frames.
Note almost all the foothill areas are private property. Thus unless one knows otherwise, we are confined to shooting behind barbed wire. So don't give we photographer's a bad name by crossing fences as ranchers and other rural locals in particular tend to really hate that. And please always park FULLY off the pavement whenever stopping along roads even if that means one might have to walk a bit back down a road from an adequate pullout to get to a spot. Simply know the law. So often I see obnoxious obviously ignorant people pulling off along typically narrow backroads with tires out over the road pavement possing a hazzard.
I'll post more on my website after some processing. ...David