A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Park
California Valley - Sun, 31 Mar 2019, 1pm
A funny thing happened on the way to the park today. We left behind the dusty drear of Bakersfield, with its miles of dry farmland and ancient oil pumps slowly cranking away, and drove west toward where California's enormous Central Valley meets the foot of the Temblor Range mountains. It was as we ascended those mountains a strange thing happened.... The land turned beautiful!
California's superbloom was visible right around us, on the sides of the road. Sure, it wasn't at the level of sensory overload like at the poppy reserve the day before, though it was amazing as a contrast to what this area normally looks like. Normally these hillsides are all brown; but today they're cloaked in fields of yellow, purple, and orange.
At first we were reluctant to stop for pictures. "We're headed to the park," we reminded ourselves, "And we already got a late start from Bakersfield, so there's no time." But then we reminded ourselves that seeing the superbloom is the point of this weekend trip! Wherever the wildflowers scenery is, whether it's in a park or on the side of a highway, doesn't matter. Thus we made several scenic stops before even getting to Carrizo Plain.
Once over the top of the Temblor Range, onto its windward side, the superbloom once again reached sensory overload proportions.
In most years this mostly-abandoned farmhouse would barely merit a second look, being a ramshackle building forgotten amid dead, brown hills; but today it looks like a postcard.
Next: Superbloom in Carrizo Plain
A funny thing happened on the way to the park today. We left behind the dusty drear of Bakersfield, with its miles of dry farmland and ancient oil pumps slowly cranking away, and drove west toward where California's enormous Central Valley meets the foot of the Temblor Range mountains. It was as we ascended those mountains a strange thing happened.... The land turned beautiful!
California's superbloom was visible right around us, on the sides of the road. Sure, it wasn't at the level of sensory overload like at the poppy reserve the day before, though it was amazing as a contrast to what this area normally looks like. Normally these hillsides are all brown; but today they're cloaked in fields of yellow, purple, and orange.
At first we were reluctant to stop for pictures. "We're headed to the park," we reminded ourselves, "And we already got a late start from Bakersfield, so there's no time." But then we reminded ourselves that seeing the superbloom is the point of this weekend trip! Wherever the wildflowers scenery is, whether it's in a park or on the side of a highway, doesn't matter. Thus we made several scenic stops before even getting to Carrizo Plain.
Once over the top of the Temblor Range, onto its windward side, the superbloom once again reached sensory overload proportions.
In most years this mostly-abandoned farmhouse would barely merit a second look, being a ramshackle building forgotten amid dead, brown hills; but today it looks like a postcard.
Next: Superbloom in Carrizo Plain