Simmler Road, Carrizo Plain National Monument, San Luis Obispo County, CA, 4/1/2017
In Southern California’s Carrizo Plain National Monument, I discovered a hill covered by thousands of blossoming wild California Coreopsis (Coreopsis californica). I had visited this spot exactly a year earlier and was impressed by the wildflower bloom, but this year’s blossoms proved to be even more impressive. Here we are near Simmler Road, looking up a hill to the north, with the Temblor Range in the distance at far right. Coreopsis, a native annual herb, grows in the washes within otherwise dry habitats. Following the previous winter's heavy rains ending 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.
