Carrizo Plain Wildflowers

I drove out to the Carrizo Plain National Monument on a recent trip to California in hopes of seeing the superbloom there. Other than fickle weather, I was not disappointed. The flowers were everywhere. The most abundant places to see wildflowers in Carrizo Plain were near Soda Lake and up in the foothills of the Temblor Range, along the Elkhorn Road, just past the Wallace Creek marker. The south side of Soda Lake had some of the densest patches of flowers I’ve seen. I drove along the Simmler raid to the ELkhorn Road and this seemed to have the densest flowers. The park rangers had said people had gotten stuck on the Simmler Road but this would be quite difficult. It was a little sandy in a couple of spots but otherwise was drivable in a car. Unfortunately, the wind was howling the day I was there so it was hard to capture the wildflowers’ beauty without a little motion blur.

I camped in dispersed camping along the south end of the Elkhart Road. I froze overnight in my tent in the park. It got down to 34 degrees and I was only prepared to camp in the much warmer desert areas.

If you’re planning to visit Carrizo Plain National Monument, it is about a 45 minute drive from San Luis Obispo or a two hour drive from Gorman, near the Antelope Poppy Reserve. I drove in 5to the park from the south on highway 58. It was a beautiful drive as even the hills along the road were filled with flowers.