Tumbleweed, California Wildflowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A tumbleweed rests in the middle of a field of California spring wildflowers.
Let’s say you live in California or close enough to get here quickly. Let’s say you like wildflowers. Let’s say you have a bit of flexibility in your schedule. Go now! In many areas of the state — mostly the oak/grassland country of Central and the coastal and inland mountain ranges and foothills, along with many desert areas — the wildflower season is reaching its quite spectacular peak.You don’t need to know the supposed Best Wildflower Spot In California… because this is more or less a statewide phenomenon, and because all you really need to do is point yourself toward one of these kinds of places, and because you’ll actually have as much fun discovering your own wildflower spot as you would have joining the hordes at the over-crowded places in the news. (Recently we saw absolutely stunning wildflowers — the kind that make you gasp out loud — as we drove past them on main highway routes through hills and desert.)
We ran into this particular display along one of those highways. I had driven past it a bit more than a week ago without seeing anything all that out of the ordinary… but a week later it was definitely at its peak. (If you were to go to this specific spot now you would likely find that it had passed its peak.) The tumbleweed plant was a gift from the photography gods and goddesses, as the scene really required something to interrupt the nearly continuous carpet of flowers.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email
Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.