Simmler Road, Carrizo Plain National Monument, San Luis Obispo County, CA, 4/1/2016
On my first visit to Southern California’s Carrizo Plain National Monument, I discovered a sandy hillside covered with thousands of blossoming wild California Coreopsis (Coreopsis californica). I returned to that hill at dawn the next day and waited for the sun to rise. Here we are, awhile after sunrise, looking north from alongside Simmler Road, with the Temblor Range in the distance, and McKittrick Summit at far right. Coreopsis, a native annual herb, grows in the washes within otherwise dry habitats. Following the previous winter's heavy rains during an extended drought, California was enjoying a rare super bloom! A few hundred years ago, California’s Central Valley was a vast grassland where antelope and elk grazed, and wildflowers graced the spring landscape. Today, Carrizo Plain survives as a remnant amid the state’s urban and agriculture development.
