Wildflower Sites in Southern California

I almost entirely post to the Avian Forum, but I thought I would give a try shooting the wildflowers which I heard might be really good this spring. I asked at the Flora and Landscape galleries and I got a suggestion to check here.

We live in Southern California (Orange County) and would like a day trip out to shoot.

Any suggestions as to sites and when might be a good date?

Here are a couple sites I use to check the location and progress of the spring bloom.

http://www.desertusa.com/wildflo/ca.html
http://www.theodorepayne.org/hotline.html

Two locations you might want to consider if you don't mind some driving are the
Santa Monica Mountains: http://www.researchlearningcenter.org/bloom/
and Anza Borrego: http://www.california-desert.org/pages/03flora/reports/current.htm/
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=638

Check the Wildflower Conservancy site: http://www.wildflowerconservancy.org/ as it always has postings for southern California

I also do wildflower postings at: Natural History Wanderings

Sandy
Berkeley, CA
Natural History Wanderings
http://picasaweb.google.com/sandysteinman

Harry,

Depending on where you live in Orange County - a day trip to Torrey Pines State Reserve is great. I was just there yesterday and the flowers are just beginning to bloom. The Guy Fleming Trail is where you'll find most of the flowers. Half the trail is closed due to winter storm damage, but you're still able to access the section on top of the bluff overlooking the ocean where many of the flowers bloom.

Use the same website as Jason: http://www.theodorepayne.org/hotline.html

Happy Flower Hunting

I would suggest you consider the California Poppy Preserve, a State Park in the Antelope Valley. According to the website, things are not quite there yet, but should pop in a week or two. http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=627

I'll bet that after this week's rainfall there will be a whole lotta flowers everywhere. I hope to plan something about three weeks from now (mid April).