Few things are as opportunistic as flowering plants in the desert. During the hot season, flowering plants are almost invisible, blending in with the sand and rocks as wispy, low-profile greenery.
Given the right combination of rainfall over the winter, the desert floor can explode with wildflowers, turning a normally monochromatic region into a tapestry of vivid colors.
The spectacular wildflower blooms don’t happen every year, but when they do, it’s worth the trouble to go see them. Most of these wildflowers happen to be in the vicinity of the dirt trails we like to take our 4x4’s to.
The wildflower bloom can take place in any of the deserts in the American southwest, but southern California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a particularly good place to see the desert in bloom.
Will the desert explode with color this season? It’s too early to tell, but we haven’t had a particularly wet winter thus far. Still, even if this year’s wildflowers aren’t a record-breaking spectacle, the flowers that do show up will be enough of an excuse to drive out to see them.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park has a wildflower hotline at (760) 767-4684.
I couldn’t find a photo of desert wildflowers close at hand, but I did have a shot of the palm trees and mountains of Palm Springs, Ca. We’ll call that the ‘before’ shot. Hopefully, this season will produce a spectacular ‘after’ shot. If not, it’s no big deal. Any excuse to get out into the dirt is a good one.